


for you are my fate

by Lymans



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-20 10:38:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4784291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lymans/pseuds/Lymans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amy has had a lot of great ideas in her lifetime. Telling her cousin she's dating Jake Peralta and he'll definitely be attending her destination wedding is not one of them.</p><p>Aka the one where Amy and Jake pretend to date while pretending they're not really madly in love with each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Fake dating! My favourite trope of them all. 
> 
> This deviates from show canon just before the Boyle-Linetti wedding so there's no wedding, Detective Majors or Johnny and Dora (basically all the stuff we loved towards the end of S2 didn't happen). Instead there's fake dating on a far larger scale! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this and it helps ease the pain of the wait for the season three premiere (all these spoilers might actually kill me before I even watch it).

It all starts on a Saturday afternoon in February.

Amy finds herself at her aunt and uncle’s house in Queens. The house is relatively small and yet it is filled to the brim with her entire family. When Amy says her entire family, she means her _entire_ family – her parents, her grandparents, her seven brothers and their respective wives, partners and children, her aunts and uncles, her cousins and their partners and children, and even her great-aunt Lucia who is pushing ninety-five but still hanging in there. The whole Santiago clan is gathered under one roof, a rarity due to their excessively large number, and it’s all in honour of Amy’s cousin, Alexa.

Amy knows you’re supposed to love your family no matter what but she hates Alexa; she truly hates her. Her cousin is twenty-six, four years younger than Amy. She thinks that in a normal family that would be a decent enough gap to put some distance between two cousins. However since the next youngest girl in the Santiago family is only eighteen, the two girls had spent their childhood always being shoved together during family holidays and events. It also means they are always being compared and, much to Amy’s aggravation, Alexa always beats her. When Amy had made the badminton team in high school, Alexa had made her middle school’s cheerleading squad. Amy’s 3.9 GPA had been celebrated until Alexa graduated with a 4.0, and her attendance to NYU had been trumped by her cousin’s acceptance letter from Columbia. Then there was the time she had announced she was joining the NYPD to dedicate her life to making a real difference and she had woken up a week later to an email from Alexa revealing she was now pre-med and planning to go to medical school.

Everything Amy does, Alexa does better.

It’s spectacularly easy to hate her cousin, especially when the rest of her family fawns over her like the golden child.

The party is in full swing and her cousin is the centre of attention, charming and delighting everyone from her grandparents to her six-month old nephew, Miguel. Amy had gone to meet him earlier and he had started screaming the moment she picked him up, and she watches sourly as Alexa bounces him up in the air and he coos with delight.

She knows she’s being bitter and ridiculous but it’s hard not to be as she watches her hand back the baby and swan towards the front of the room. While Amy is still her in work clothes, having rushed off after handing a case over to the weekend squad, Alexa is in a dress that probably costs more than Amy’s rent and heels that make her feet ache simply looking at them. She should be exhausted since she’s a surgical intern at Mount Sinai but she looks more like she’s just had a week in the Hamptons, while Amy knows she’s got dark circles under her eyes that her concealer is doing a crappy job of covering. So she happily glowers from her spot in the kitchen as Alexa picks up her wine glass and taps it.

“Could I have everyone’s attention?” she calls out in that infuriatingly affected voice she’s been using since she was eighteen and decided her Queens accent was too embarrassing for the corridors of Columbia.

The Santiago family promptly falls silent, ceasing their conversations to give Alexa their full attention.

“The reason Asher and I asked you all to come today,” she says, beckoning forward her frat boy boyfriend who’s been hovering behind her, “is because we have some news we want to share with you, the most important people in our lives.” Alexa turns to Asher for a moment and they whisper to each other, fiddling with something out of sight, before turning back to their rapt audience. “We’re getting married,” she shrieks, holding out her left hand so they can all see the diamond which Amy can see sparkling from all the way at the back.

Cheers break out and the happy couple are rapidly swamped by family members hugging them and pressing kisses to their cheeks. Carolina, Alexa’s mom, is weeping and Amy watches bemused as she kisses Asher on the lips. He looks startled and she wonders if he knows what he’s letting himself in for by marrying into her madcap family.

Amy allows herself to be swept along with the rest of her relatives and it isn’t long before she’s hugging Alexa tightly, practically choking on her cloying perfume.

“Congratulations, Lex.”

“Aw aren’t you sweet?” she says, hugging her back, and Amy can literally feel the ring digging into her back. “You will be one of my bridesmaids, won’t you?” She barrels on before Amy even has a chance to think about it, let alone answer. “I just can’t believe it. I’m going to be somebody’s wife.” Amy begins to step aside so her Uncle Antonio can offer his congratulations but Alexa is gripping her arm tightly and offering her a simpering smile. “And don’t worry, Ames, it’ll happen for you one day.”

And there it is, the classic Alexa Santiago insult disguised as concern or worry or sympathy. Amy has heard them all over the years, each one delivered with a sweet smile and a kind tone. In the beginning she had complained to her mom but all she had received in response was a dismissive shake of the head and knowledge that she was the only one not totally besotted by her cousin.

“Isn’t it fantastic?” Amy’s mom says as she walks out of the living room, away from the adoring crowd. “They make such a beautiful couple.”

“Yep.”

“And I’m sure it’s going to be a gorgeous wedding. Alexa has such lovely taste.”

“I’m sure.”

She thinks her tone conveys casual interest but then her mom pats her on the arm and presses a kiss to her cheek.

“Don’t be upset, sweetheart. It’ll be your turn one day.”

Great, even her own mom pities her single status.

“I know,” she says because now is the not the time to discuss her lack of a boyfriend. Yes her mom was married with five children by her age but it’s 2014 and it’s perfectly fine that she’s thirty and single.  “Anyway I better get back to work, mom. Big murder case,” she adds. There isn’t but she’d rather be in her apartment watching reruns of Law and Order than standing here. They’ve had this conversation before and it always ends with her mom running through all the “nice gentlemen” she knows and Amy being forced into an awkward blind date with a guy who still lives in his parents’ basement.

Before her mum can add anything else, she’s tugging on her coat, kissing her goodbye with the promise to come out to Jersey and visit, and hurrying out of the house.

Hopefully the busy life of an intern will mean a long engagement, at least three or four years, because Amy thinks she could go her whole life without seeing the inevitably over the top wedding her cousin will plan.

* * *

 

The save the date arrives in October.

At first Amy is unaware of it as she sorts out her mail at her desk while Jake watches in amusement.

“I can’t believe you still get actual bills delivered. You have heard of the internet, right?”

“How often do you remember to pay your online bills?” she snarks back without looking up at him. He falls silent at that and she allows herself a small smirk. Things were awkward between them when he first came back but they seem to finally be falling back into their old rhythm which she has missed.

She neatly wraps an elastic band around the pile of bills so she can get them paid on her lunch break. Then her fingers brush over an envelope that feels fancier than any of the usual mail that she gets. Without even looking at it, she knows what it is.

The envelope is heavy and thick and practically smells of money. Her name and address are written in neat cursive print and inside there’s the same print again, this time on thick cream card lined with a silver border; simple and yet irritatingly elegant.

_Save the date_

_Asher and Alexa are getting married!_

_June 20 th 2015_

_Anguilla_

_Formal invitation to follow_

Amy sighs and stuffs the card back into the envelope. Of course it’s a destination wedding. She’s already mentally running through the do list that creates for her – booking time off work, digging into her savings for flights and the hotel – as she logs into her email where, of course, there’s one from Alexa.

From: [Alexasantiago@gmail.com](mailto:alexasantiago@gmail.com)

To: All

Subject: The Wedding

Dear loved ones,

Hopefully you all received our save the date in the mail this morning. Asher and I could not be more excited to have you all joining us for this special day.

A formal invitation will follow closer to the wedding but I thought I would email out a few important details to help get this all started perfectly.

Asher and I will be married in Anguilla. It is such a beautiful island and I look forward to sharing it with all of you next year. We plan to have a number of festivities prior to the wedding so we want all guests to be on the island by Thursday June 18th at the latest. Of course if you wish to arrive earlier to see the sights and relax then that would be delightful. We also want our guests to all be staying in the same place to help create a real celebratory atmosphere so for those eager beavers amongst you, our hotel of choice is the Viceroy. We have already reserved a block of rooms for you so please use our name with the hotel when you are booking.

Finally, we did our best to list all plus ones on the save the date envelopes. If you do require a plus one and they weren’t listed then I apologise and please email one of us to let us know.

Only eight months to go!

-A

Amy glares at the computer screen as she reads the email. Then she double checks her envelope and glares even harder because it simply reads ‘Amy Santiago.’  No ‘Amy Santiago and guest.’ She knows her mom would say it was an accident but she knows Alexa and she knows it’s her pitying her poor single cousin once more.

Except she’s not single she thinks smugly as she hits reply and starts typing with far more force than is necessary.

“Okay what did the computer do to you this time?” Jake asks as he wheels round to nosey at her screen.

“Nothing. I’m just letting my cousin know about the mistake on her save the date.”

“’Alexa, thank you for the save the date. I can’t wait to attend your wedding!’” He reads over her shoulder. “Oh yeah, that doesn’t sound sarcastic at all. ‘However you seem to have missed my plus one. My boyfriend will be attending with me and we cannot wait.’” She hits send before she can over think it. “When’s the wedding?”

“June.”

“Oh.” Jake is quieter now. “And you’re taking Teddy with you?”

“Yes,” she says before realising that this is Jake, the same Jake who told her he still had feelings for her only a couple of weeks ago, and she’s basically rubbing her relationship in his face.

She wants to apologise or explain but he just says "cool" then wheels his chair back before wandering over to Boyle’s desk. She knows she hasn’t done anything wrong – she is perfectly entitled to plan to attend a wedding with her boyfriend next year – but she still feels annoyingly guilty.

She shoves that feeling down to the place where she keeps all her other messy feelings and texts Teddy instead to let him know she’s roped him into a trip to a tropical island with the entirety of her family. What better way to introduce your family to your boyfriend than at a wedding where he has no means of escape?

* * *

 

In the following six months Jake starts dating Sophia – an irritatingly gorgeous lawyer who reminds Amy far too much of Alexa - Amy breaks up with Teddy who gives her the parting gift of revealing her feelings for Jake, which, unlike in romantic comedies and her occasional daydream, does not lead to them making out in the evidence locker, and Sophia stomps on Jake’s heart. All in all it’s not a great six months for love and romance.

Then the wedding invitation arrives.

She reads it on the subway into work and by the time she’s at her desk she’s mad at her past self, her cousin, Teddy and whoever the idiot was that came up with the idea of weddings in the first place.

Requesting a plus one had seemed so smart when she was in a stable relationship with a steady, kind, hard-working boyfriend that she could happily rub in her cousin’s face. However Teddy is long gone and Amy is currently in a very serious relationship with her Netflix account.  The wedding is six weeks away and there’s no way she is going to start dating someone and be in a committed enough place to unleash her family on them in such a short amount of time.

That leaves her with the hideous option of telling her cousin the truth, and she spends the entire morning convincing herself that it will be fine. She is thirty-one and single and there is nothing wrong with that. She is focused on her career right now; marriage can wait.

This is the mantra she repeats over and over in her head as she leaves for a rare early lunch and rides the subway uptown to meet her cousin and the rest of the bridal party at the dress shop. They’re easy to spot, both because of their loud chattering in the middle of the empty shop and because all of the women gathered around Alexa look just like her. They vary in race and height but it’s like looking at a range of Barbie dolls all modelled on the same prototype. They are all thin with the same ombre hair, preppy clothing and skyscraper heels. And as they give Amy the classic New York once-over, she swears she’s never felt dowdier in her life.

“Girls, this is my cousin, Amy,” Alexa says as she wraps an arm around her, “the missing member of our little group.” The women – Amy refuses to call them girls – all dutifully greet her. “She’s a hard working detective so she hasn’t had a chance to join us before now but I’m sure you’ll all fill her in on everything she needs to know.”

With that Alexa hurries off to the other side of the store and her bridesmaids turn and continue their conversations as if Amy isn’t there, which is fine with her because the quicker this is over with the better. She has an hour and a half for her lunch break and she’d like to at least eat something before she heads back to the precinct. She’s going to try on her dress, tell Alexa she doesn’t need a plus one and then she can get back to her day.

“Here are your dresses.”

Alexa reappears with a harried looking salesgirl who is wheeling along a rack of dark red dresses. Amy had been preparing herself to wear a suitably hideous dress but she’s surprised at how gorgeous they are, strapless with long skirts and soft flowing fabric. Each of them is passed their dress and hurried into a changing room while Alexa claps her hands in excitement

Amy quickly changes, folding her suit on the chair and shrugging out of her sports bra. She shimmies into the dress and undoes her ponytail, letting her dark hair fall around her shoulders. The dress is long, sweeping along the floor, but she stands on her tip toes and imagines herself in a pair of four-inch heels that will make her feet hurt from the moment she puts them on. She looks in the mirror and can’t help but smile. She looks good. The burgundy of the dress compliments her skin tone and the low neckline on the bust gives the smallest hint of cleavage, subtle enough to be appropriate for a family affair. A wistful feeling washes over her. It’s a shame this look is going to go to waste with only her family to appreciate it. Quickly she whips out her phone and snaps a photo before sending it over to Kylie – _Alexa has surprisingly good taste._

The telling three dots appear almost immediately, quickly followed by Kylie’s reply – _Looking hot, Ames! Obvs she does. She’ll still make sure no one looks better than her x_

It’s a fair point. Whatever her cousin is wearing, she’ll have made sure all eyes will be on her and only her.

Amy picks up the skirt and shuffles out of the dressing room to let Alexa have her say but the only person she can see is her Aunt Carolina sat on one of the sofas flicking through a bridal magazine.

“Oh Amelia, you look beautiful,” she coos in appreciation as she notices her hovering. She kisses her aunt’s cheek in thanks and dutifully twirls, feeling more beautiful than she has in ages. She adores being a detective but it doesn’t leave much room for frivolous things like beauty. “How has some young man not swept you off your feet yet?” Swallowing a frustrated sigh, she nods rather than pointing out that women don’t get swept off their feet anymore, and wonders exactly how many times she’s going to hear such comments in the next two months. “Don’t worry, mi cariña, it will happen one day.”

“Didn’t you hear, mama?” Alexa says as she walks over to them. “It might be happening sooner than we all think. Amy is bringing her boyfriend to the wedding.”

Her aunt’s face lights up and she hugs Amy tightly. “Really?”

This is it, the moment where she tells the truth. She’ll let them know that there was a boyfriend but she’s single again which is perfectly fine. That is absolutely what she intends to say.

However, as she opens her mouth, she panics and the words don't come out anything like the way she planned them in her head.

“Yes I am.”

“What’s his name?” Alexa asks, and then she’s pulling a clipboard and pen from her tote bag, ready to add the name to her guest list.

More panic.

“Jake. His name’s Jake.”

“Jake what?”

She needs to stop. She needs to stop talking right now and figure out a way to fix this. But Alexa has her pen poised and is looking at her expectantly, as is her aunt and a couple of her fellow bridesmaids who have of course chosen this moment to re-join the group, and the words keep coming like hideous word vomit.

“Jake Peralta. My boyfriend’s name is Jake Peralta.”

And just like that, the whole wedding situation gets a million times worse.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy asks Jake to do her a little favour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. I am totally overwhelmed by the response to this fic! It's been so lovely to have kudos and comment emails rolling into my inbox all week. Thank you to everyone who read the first chapter and left kudos. And a big thank you to everyone who took the time to comment. It's really wonderful to hear what you think.

Amy manages to excuse herself from the bridal store without digging an even deeper hole but the damage has already been done. Jake is on the official guest list and she knows that, by the end of the day, Alexa and Carolina will have let everyone know that he is coming to the wedding.

Her appetite has faded and she instead spends her lunch break crafting a series of possible options to solve the mess she has made.

1)      Find a guy named Jake, start dating him immediately and convince him to come to the wedding .

2)      Hire an escort and pay him to answer to the name “Jake Peralta” for the duration of the wedding.

3)      Hire an actor to play Jake at the wedding.

She examines each of these options and swiftly rejects them in turn. She’s told her cousin Jake’s last name already meaning option one is a no go even if she could find a guy that quickly. Meanwhile option two makes her skin scrawl – and is definitely breaking some laws – and it, along with option three, will most likely drain her savings account.

4)      Persuade Jake to come to the wedding with me and pretend to be my boyfriend

The fourth option stares up at Amy from the screen, practically mocking her as it refuses to be rejected. In frustration she starts another list.

_Reasons why inviting Jake to the wedding is a terrible idea:_

  1. _We’re not dating._
  2. _We work together so it would be awkward._
  3. _My family will question him and discover the truth._
  4. _My family will embarrass me._
  5. _I’d have to spend five days with Jake on a romantic island._
  6. _I still like him._



The last reason draws her list to a close and she glares at it in annoyance. Back on the terrible road trip, Jake had easily accepted that her feelings only existed in the past and she had gone alone with it because there was no benefit to her suggesting otherwise. Since then, she’s been doing well at denying her feelings and acting like anything she may have felt for Jake is long gone. He’s been messed up over Sophia and no good can come from her even hinting that she still likes him, so she has stubbornly ignored the butterflies she gets around him and the way her heart starts skipping whenever his fingers brush hers as he passes her a file. Inviting him to a wedding while he’s still reeling from a break up with a woman he actually loved is just asking for her heart to get trodden on.

She turns back to her original list and starts typing again.

5)       

However the mysterious fifth option stays frustratingly blank for the rest of the subway ride and all the way back to the precinct.

“Hey, Amy,” Jake says as she slides back behind her desk and logs on to her computer. “Why has your cousin just messaged me on Facebook telling me she can’t wait to meet me at her wedding? I don’t remember getting an invitation in the mail or ever actually meeting your cousin.”

A series of profanities runs through Amy’s head as she glances round the room, praying that no one has heard Jake’s comment. Thankfully everyone else is wrapped up in their own work or conversations and Gina seems to still be out on lunch. She wheels her chair over to the desk, shoves him out of the way and ignores his protests as she looks at the screen. There on his computer is a message from Alexa giving her apologies for not formally inviting Jake and letting him know that she can’t wait to finally meet him after having heard so much about him, a total lie.  

Shit. Shit shit shit.

Jake is looking at her expectantly with a smirk on his face and Amy realises she’s out of options.

“Come with me,” she says before getting up and dragging him towards the evidence locker.

“Ow, Amy! If you wanted to have your wicked way with me then all you had to do was ask,” he shouts, earning approving laughter from Boyle.

“Shut up.” She shoves him through the door and closes it firmly behind them. “You are going to listen and you are not going to say a word until I am done. And if you so much as laugh then I will show everyone that picture from the time you fell asleep on a stakeout and sucked your thumb.”

Jake nods and she waits for him to make some witty comment but instead he looks at her silently. This is her last chance to back out of this insane idea but she has tried and failed to come up with any other option.

“My cousin is getting married in six weeks and my entire family is going to her wedding. My family who look at me like I am an old spinster destined to die alone. Six months ago I told Alexa I was bringing my boyfriend because I had one that I could bring. Today she asked me if I was still bringing him and I couldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing I’d messed up another relationship so I panicked and I….told her my boyfriend was you.” She rushes through the last part but she knows Jake hears it because that stupid, massive grin forms on his face, his eyes glittering with barely contained laughter, and she hits on the arm. “I said no laughing!”

“Firstly, ow. Second, I wasn’t laughing. That was a smile which is totally different. And c, why didn’t you just say you were single? It’s not a big deal.”

“I know it’s not a big deal. I am fine with the fact that I am single. However my family is not. Every holiday they ask me whether I’m finally in a serious relationship and I have to put up with all the sympathetic looks when I say no. They all pity me and now Alexa is engaged and they’re waiting for me to have a breakdown over my younger, prettier cousin getting married before me. Plus Alexa loves to beat me in everything. She’s smug enough about the fact that she’s engaged and I’m not. If I show up to her wedding single then she will be unbearable.”

Jake nods slowly as if he’s trying to understand her logic. “Okay but why say you’re dating me? Not that I’m not flattered to be your first choice for an imaginary boyfriend but you could have said any name. Why mine?”

Suddenly Amy feels like she’s standing on a landmine. There’s that same sinking feeling in her stomach that occurs every time there’s a discussion about Jake and her. One wrong step and everything blows up, destroying all the hard work she’s done to hide her feelings for the man in front of her.

“I panicked and your name was the first one that came to mind. I’m so sorry you’ve been dragged into this mess. I didn’t think Alexa would message you.”

Jake is still grinning, though it’s smaller now, and she expects him to tease her at least a little but he surprises her by simply asking, “So what’s your plan? Your cousin seems to be expecting me at this thing.”

Amy is good at convincing people to do what she wants. Sure that’s normally getting them to confess to whatever crime they committed but she likes to think the skills are transferrable.

“I need you to come to this wedding with me and pretend that we’re together.” She rushes on before he can interrupt and point out the absurdity of her plan. “I know this is a huge thing to ask of you but you would be saving my life. I will pay for everything and you’ll get four days in the Caribbean. All you will have to do is tell my family that we’re a couple. That’s it.”

She’s not proud of herself but no other option is presenting itself. It’s this or dying of embarrassment when she has to admit she made up a boyfriend and is in fact single again.

Anxiously, she chews on her hangnail as she watches Jake contemplate her proposition. She knows it’s a ridiculous thing she’s asking, and if this had been six months ago when he still liked her then she would never have even thought of putting him in this position. But he’s moved on and they’re friends and don’t friends do other friends favours?

“Alright,” he says and an expression passes over his face that’s gone before she can identify it. “You’re going to have to pay for my sunblock though because tropical weather does not agree with my pale skin.

Her laughter is lost as she throws herself at him without thinking. “Thank you, Jake. Thank you.” She hugs him tightly and he stands stiffly for a moment before hugging her, his hands rubbing her back. There’s the familiar warmth in her belly at his touch but she ignores it. She got herself into this mess and there is no place in it for pesky feelings.

“I better go ask the captain for some time off then. When is it?”

“The actual wedding is June 20th but Alexa wants everyone there by the 18th at the latest so really that means the 17th.”

“Wow, she sounds…” Jake searches for the right word. “Delightful.”

“That’s putting it lightly. Hey, Jake?” He stops at the door and turns to look at her. “Could we maybe not tell the rest of the squad about the ‘you pretending to be my boyfriend’ part?”

“Sure thing, Ames.”

He smiles at her and then, as the door closes behind him, Amy allows herself to slump to the floor. She’s pretty sure she has a masochist streak because why else would she put herself in a situation where she’s going to have to pretend to date the guy she actually would like to date if it wasn’t for the fact that he was totally over her?

Burying her head in her lap, she forces herself to take deep breaths and talk herself down. It’ll be fine. It’s just two friends going to a wedding. If anyone asks then they’ll say they’re together but otherwise it’ll be two friends hanging out for a few days. It’ll be fine.

She dusts off her trousers and walks back to her desk, purposefully ignoring Boyle’s questioning look. Jake is sat in Holt’s office and she wonders how he’s explaining his time off request to him. She doesn’t think Holt will be eager to have his two best detectives out at the same time when one of them doesn’t even know the bride or groom of the wedding they’re attending.

Sighing, she clicks onto Alexa and Asher’s wedding website, grimacing at the staged picture of the two of them in Central Park. Alexa had splashed out for an extravagant engagement shoot and Amy had been treated to the photos all over her newsfeed for an entire week. Thankfully her cousin shares her organisational skills and it’s easy enough to locate their hotel’s website and the reservation code all the guests had been instructed to use. Amy had booked her own room six months ago but she doesn’t think it’ll be difficult to change it. It’d be easiest to simply book Jake his own room, and she thinks both of them would rather the privacy, but she knows having two rooms under her name will get Alexa asking questions. So instead she finds her own reservation and sends through a request to the hotel to change her room from a king to a double.

“Holt has approved my vacation time,” Jake tells her as he sits back down at his desk.

“You’re going on vacay, Jakey?”  Boyle asks and Jake looks at her for a sign as for how he should answer.

“He’s coming to my cousin’s wedding with me.”

“YES!” Boyle cheers and the two of them stare at him. “I knew you two would figure it out and get together. Oh this is the best day!”

“No,” Jake interrupts before Boyle can start dancing or she can correct him. “We’re going as friends. Just friends.”

His tone is firm and Amy can’t help but feel the sting at his words.

“Oh.” Boyle looks disappointed but then he brightens and starts telling Jake all the food he’s going to have to try while he’s out there.

Amy tunes him out and roots through her purse for her phone to text Kylie in search of some reassurance.

Amy (1:33) May have invited Jake to the wedding. May have also suggested to family he is my boyfriend.

Kylie (1:36) WHAT?

Kylie (1:37) WHAT?

Kylie (1:38) ARE YOU AN IDIOT?

Amy (1:55) It’ll be fine.

Kylie (1:58) said the spider to the fly. you do remember you’re in love with him?

Amy (2:15) I am not in love with him!

Kylie (2:16) yeah you just want to have hot dirty sex with him and then marry him and have lots of babies

Amy (2:33) Shut up

Amy (2:34) Have I made a mistake?

Kylie (2:53) probably but you need more mistakes in your life. go have steamy sex in the caribbean then tell me all about it

Amy (3:00) There will be no sex!

Kylie (3:10) sure ;)

Kylie’s last text is accompanied by an eggplant emoji and Amy turns her phone off in frustration. Kylie is being ridiculous. Jake and Sophia broke up a month ago and he’s still not totally back to normal. And even if he was, he has shown zero interest in her since the night he came back from being undercover. Like he told Boyle, they’re going to the wedding as friends, just friends. That’s it.

All she has to do is get through four nights on a tropical island with her entire extended family without any of them realising that there is nothing romantic between her and Jake.

It’ll be fine.

* * *

The day before they’re due to fly out, Amy finds herself hovering outside Jake’s door wondering whether this is a truly terrible idea or not. They’ve refrained from discussing their upcoming holiday too much, partly due to a heavy caseload and partly because it all seems rather ridiculous still. Aside from a few passing comments on flight details and appropriate clothing, they’ve each chosen to ignore their rapidly approaching charade. But tomorrow Amy is going to be unleashing more than thirty members of the Santiago clan on Jake and she’ll be damned if she is going to do that unprepared.

Shifting the takeout bag in her hand, she knocks on the door and listens as the TV quietens and the sound of approaching footsteps echoes from inside. The door opens to reveal Jake still dressed in his plaid shirt and worn jeans from earlier, half-drunk beer in hand.

“Amy, what are you doing here?” he asks, brow wrinkled as he takes in the takeout she’s holding and the large binder in her other hand. “And what is that?”

She shoves the hot food into his arms and walks in. “We need a battle plan.”

“I wasn’t aware we were at war.” He doesn’t push any further though, instead choosing to unpack the food. “Beer is in the fridge,” he says as he unloads the greasy Chinese food onto two mismatched plates.

Jake’s fridge is sparse as always, just like hers, but there’s a collection of beer on the top shelf and she helps herself to one, uncapping it with the bottle opener that lives on the fridge door before flipping the top straight into the trash which earns an impressed whistle from Jake.

The two of them gather up their food – he’s given her all four of the spring rolls even though he likes them too – and move over to the sofa, Amy with the large binder still under her arm.

Jake shoves some noodles into his mouth and asks, “So what battle are we in exactly?”

“You are meeting my family tomorrow. If this insane lie is going to work then we need to be prepared.”

“Can I just point out this insane lie was your idea?”

Her cheeks flush. “I know. And I’m so sorry you’re getting swept up in it.” A wave of guilt washes over her. “You can still back out; I’ll totally understand. I can just tell my family you had to work or something.” She imagines showing up tomorrow alone and her stomach sinks.

“Amy, I promised I’d do this and I will. I wouldn’t be a good friend if I let you go off and have a shitty time alone. Show me this binder then.”

He reaches out for the folder and she must visibly wince at his greasy fingers because he looks abashed and wipes them on his jeans before reaching out again.

“The first section is all the stuff you would know about me if we were dating. We’re not going to do all of this and then slip up because you don’t know what brand of toothpaste I use or something.”

Raising an eyebrow, he scans the first few pages. “Is that a question your family is likely to ask? Also, I already know almost all of this.”

“You do?”

“Uh huh.  I know you have a scar on your right shoulder from where that perp shot you back in ’11, something your mom still doesn’t know about. I know you run three miles along the river every Monday, Wednesday and Friday before work even though you hate running. I know you love orange juice and tomato ketchup but hate oranges and tomatoes. I don’t need a binder to tell me any of that.” Her reaction is to blink numerous times and stare at Jake with her mouth slightly agape. She has had serious boyfriends who wouldn’t have remembered some of those things about her. Jake catches her reaction and looks flustered as he hurries to correct himself. “I mean I know stuff like that about everyone we work with. It’s part of always being around each other. I bet you know the same stuff about me.”

She does. She knows Jake hits the snooze button four times every morning. She knows he places $50 on the Nets to win the championship every season even though he always loses. She knows he goes to temple with his mom once a month and takes her out for lunch afterwards. She knows him. And maybe she knows things about him that she didn’t know about Teddy after dating him for nine months but that’s because Jake is her partner and they’ve known each other for seven years, nothing else.

“I guess you’re right.” She leans over and flicks to the next section of her binder, ignoring her pages of carefully collated notes. “Next is my parents. I figure we can leave my brothers for later.”

Jake gives her a thankful look and she wonders if he’ll still be so thankful when he meets the mad medley that is her siblings.

“Your mom is a nurse, right?”

“Yeah. I think she was always a little disappointed that Raff was the only one of us who wanted to follow her into the medical field.”

“What’s she like?”

“She’s amazing. Nothing ever seems to phase her and she somehow managed to study for her nursing degree and work horrendous shifts while raising eight of us and always getting dinner on the table. She doesn’t suffer fools or laziness so I think she can come across as a little intimidating but really all she wants is for all of us to be married off and giving her lots of grandchildren. That’s why she’ll be so overjoyed that you’re a real, live man.”

“What about your dad?”

“My dad is a softie. He’s a big nerd. He taught world history at the local high school but he retired last year. Now he mainly does the crossword, plays golf and reads all those massive biographies. He’ll rope you into at least one golf game while we’re there. How’s your golf?”

“That’s the one where you have to get the little ball into the hole, right? I think I played a game on a bad date in high school once.”

“Real golf doesn’t have windmills and loops though. You know that?” she asks cautiously only to receive a blank look in return. “Don’t worry, he loves winning so that’ll make him happy.” Jake gives her a look. “Yes, Santiagos are competitive. Big surprise.”

“So lose terribly. Anything else I can do to impress him?”

Jake sounds eager and Amy can’t help but smile. She knows this all a charade but Jake seems so serious about impressing her parents.

“He tries to be intimidating but he’s a sweetheart really. He’s good at sniffing out bullshit so just be honest and you’ll be fine.” It takes her a moment to catch what she’s said. “Aside from the one big piece of bullshit obviously.”

“Then we better get our story straight so he doesn’t figure us out.”

“Oh,” she says as Jake gets up and grabs two beers from the fridge.

“What?”

“I hadn’t thought about that part.”

“You wrote this entire binder that could literally be used as a doorstop and you didn’t think about what we’re going to tell people when they ask how we met?”

“No. What should we say?”

“Well a good lie sticks close to the truth so that’s probably our best bet. And I was so looking forward to being Oscar Walsh, an enigmatic businessman from England.” She shoves him and he smiles. “When did you get the invite?”

“Six weeks ago. But I RSVPed for a plus one back in October.”

“Okay would your family believe we’ve been together for almost a year and they’re only just meeting me now?”

She shakes her head. “Probably not.” She trails off for a moment before adding, “Teddy would have met most of them this weekend but I would have introduced him to my parents by now.”

If Jake feels any awkwardness at the mention of her ex-boyfriend, he doesn’t show it. “Okay so let’s say that you were going to bring Teddy but you broke up and then we started dating at the beginning of the year. You asked me out and-“

“I asked you out?”

“Yeah you finally couldn’t resist _this_ any longer,” he says, gesturing to himself before noticing the splodge of sweet and sour sauce on his shirt, “and you jumped me one night at Shaw’s.”

“That is not what we are saying. If anything, you begged me to go out with you and wouldn’t give in until I said yes.”

“I refuse to be painted as a desperate man. It’s the twenty-first century, women can ask out men that they’re super into.”

With a sigh, she acquiesces. “Fine. I asked you out in February and we’ve been together ever since. I didn’t tell my parents about you because it’s all so new but it got serious fast and we both see it going somewhere.”

Jake suddenly seems very interested in the label on his beer bottle but he nods in agreement at her words. Amy distracts herself by flicking through her binder while she tries to ignore the longing feeling at how nice it would be if that story was actually true. Of course in February Jake was still with Sophia and now she’s asking him to pretend he wasn’t totally in love with someone else back then.

“Jake, are you sure you want to do this?”

“Four nights in the Caribbean with one of my best friends and an all-you-can-eat buffet. Absolutely I want to do this.”

His certainty only makes her heart ache more because apparently she is the only one struggling with the idea of pretending to date each other for the next few days. As Jake takes another drink of his beer and she watches his Adam’s apple bob in his throat, she forces herself to be rational. She can do this. It’s only four days and then they’ll be back in New York and everything will be back to normal.

She can totally do this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all the necessary set-up done. Next chapter, Jake and Amy head off to Anguilla to start their fake relationship. 
> 
> I'm very interested in Amy's perspective as we don't often see that on the show. I am toying with having some sections in Jake's POV as well, especially as we get deeper into the 'relationship,' but that's not a definite yet. 
> 
> I will do my best to get the next chapter out next weekend.
> 
> Also I'm [here](http://gabby-dawson.tumblr.com) on Tumblr if you want to chat about Brooklyn Nine-Nine (eight days!) or just say hi.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy and Jake's lie begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again I am totally blown away by how much people are enjoying this story. Thank you so much for reading, giving kudos and leaving comments. It makes my day every time I get an alert about someone liking what I'm writing. 
> 
> Happy Brooklyn Nine Nine day! I can't believe the hiatus is over in a few hours. Colour me incredibly excited for the season premiere.

The day of their flight, Amy allows herself to switch to auto pilot and go through her usual pre-vacation rituals to keep from focusing on the insanity of what she is about to do. She double checks her suitcase and loads up her carry-on with everything she could possibly need. Her fridge is cleared out of any food that might go off in the next few days and she takes out the trash, washes the dishes and switches off everything electronic that she can find. By the time she’s double and triple checking her alarm code, her phone is buzzing to announce her Uber’s arrival and her stomach is churning.

The drive to Jake’s is a short one but she’s thankful her driver isn’t the type to fill the silence with inane chatter. As the cab turns onto his street, she can feel the panic rising inside of her and she tries her best to quell it.

However, before her brain can take over and cause her to descend into a full on panic attack, the door opens and her heart catches at the sight of Jake. He’s wearing dark jeans and an expensive-looking black sweater with his holdall slung over his shoulder. She doesn’t know if it’s the clothes, the glasses or his wide grin but her heart beats faster as he walks towards her and she has to force her breathing to slow down.

“Will I do?” he asks before giving her a twirl that makes her snort involuntarily.

It’s just Jake. There’s no need for her to be awkward and weird the way she normally gets around guys she likes.

“You didn’t have to dress up for my family,” she tells him as he tosses his luggage in the trunk next to hers and slides into the cab with her.

“Yeah but I figured a good first impression would help. If you really want to stick it to your cousin then I am more than happy to help.”

“Is that why you’re wearing glasses?” she asks, pointing at the unfamiliar frames.

“Actually I just couldn’t find the case for them.”

“You wear glasses?” She yanks them off his nose and tries them on. “Oh my god they’re real glasses. How have I never seen these before?”

“I only need them if I’m reading for ages, and also I would never let Gina see me in these.”

“I promise to keep your secret,” she tells him before handing them back, taking a second to appreciate how good he looks in them.

Jake starts fiddling with his phone as the cab leads them into Queens and Amy forces herself to check through their flight information and triple check that she has everything rather than watching him out of the corner of her eye. If he isn’t going to act weirdly about this then neither is she.

By the time they arrive at the airport, she’s talked herself in and out of the plan three times before deciding that it’s too late for any other option. Jake unloads their bags from the trunk and leads them into the airport. It unnerves Amy how relaxed he is as they go through check-in and line up for security. She feels like she’s going to have a heart attack at any moment and can’t stop imagining all the ways her lie could be discovered, while Jake seems ridiculously calm like being a fake boyfriend is just a regular thing for him.

Then a thought occurs to her as they shuffle forward in the line and she whispers to him, “Are you undercover?”

“What?” he whispers back, eyeing the security guard who’s studying everyone in line.

“The glasses, the smart clothes – are you pretending to be Arthur Winklevoss or something? Is that why you’re not freaking out?”

Instead of answering her, he takes off his shoes and drops them into the security tray before wiggling his toes at her. She looks down and takes in the garish Family Guy socks he’s wearing and smiles because those socks are so totally Jake in every way.

“Still Jake Peralta,” he tells her as he undoes his watch and pulls his wallet from his back pocket. “I’m not freaking out because I’m about to go on holiday with one of my best friends so I see no reason to freak out.”

That brings a smile to her face and she ducks her head, trying to look intently focused on taking off her own shoes, in case her expression gives anything away. The two of them dutifully move their trays down the security line before taking turns stepping through the scanner. By the time they’ve gathered all their things, stopped at Starbucks so Jake can get coffee, and at the bookstore so Amy can get the trashy magazines she rarely indulges in, their gate is showing and the two of them make their way towards it discussing their latest case and whether they think Hitchcock and Scully are going to even notice they’re gone.

As they sit down and wait for boarding to start, Amy scans the waiting area to make sure none of her family are on the same flight. From her Facebook feed and her brothers’ texts, she knows that the majority of them have already flown out and are relaxing on the beach. Her youngest brother, Marco, had especially enjoyed sending her snapchats of the beach and pool yesterday while she was at her desk poring over case files. However it would be just her luck to have a clan of Santiagos on the same flight, ready to attack them with questions and catch them out before they even land in Anguilla.

Her foot taps against the floor until Jake reaches out a hand and forces her leg to stop bouncing.

“You don’t need to be nervous.”

“We are telling this ridiculous lie and my family is bound to see through it because they’re going to ask so many questions. You’re the first guy they’re meeting in forever.”

“How much do they know about me anyway?”

“I’ve told them about you,” she reassures him. “My mom is always trying to get me to invite you over for dinner so she can meet you.”

Jake smiles at that and she suddenly regrets that she’s never extended the invitation to him.

“They’re just going to be happy that you’re with someone. It’s going to be fine.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“You don’t need to stress, Amy. They’re not going to try and catch us out.”

* * *

 

Flying is one of Amy’s least favourite pastimes so while Jake starts watching some inane movie on his iPad that makes him laugh loudly much to the irritation of the older woman across the aisle, Amy swallows two Xanax before even doing up her seatbelt and breathes a sigh of relief as the familiar relaxed feeling washes over her.

“Do you hate flying that much?” Jake asks, eyeing her bottle of pills.

“There is a reason I live within driving distance of everything and everyone I need in my life. Flying makes no sense.”

“What is not love about it? It’s the one time you’re expected to do nothing but eat crappy food and watch movies for hours.”

Rolling her eyes, Amy pulls the cheap airplane pillow out of the packaging and leans it against the window as the pilot begins his speech welcoming them on board. All the anxiety that has been building inside of her melts away and she allows herself to relax back in her seat. Maybe Jake is right and she is simply overthinking everything. This weekend is all about Alexa, and her family is going to be far more focused on the blushing bride than Amy and her new boyfriend.

It is this thought that lulls her to sleep.

Her next conscious thought comes when the ding of the seatbelt sign disturbs her sleep. Groggily, her brain begins to ease back into reality as the pilot announces they are about to begin landing and she registers that her head feels heavy. Stifling a yawn, she shifts in her seat before it dawns on her that her head is no longer resting against the cool window.  Instead her makeshift pillow is soft and warm. Slowly she opens her eyes. Her head is resting on Jake’s shoulder and there is a blanket draped over her that wasn’t there at the start of the flight. The heavy feeling is in fact Jake’s own head resting  against hers but his steady breathing lets her know that he is still fast asleep, his hand lying on her thigh.

Their position is intimate and Amy knows she should move before Jake wakes up and everything gets awkward and embarrassing. However the sound of his heavy breathing and the weight of him against her is comforting. So instead she closes her eyes again, listening to the sound of Jake breathing and the air stewards moving about the cabin. The relaxing feeling from her Xanax has faded but, as the plane begins its descent, her usual scared feeling is missing. Instead she simply focuses on the sensation of having Jake next to her. When the plane touches down, her stomach doesn’t even jolt.

“Welcome to Anguilla where it’s currently 95 and sunny. We hope you enjoyed your flight with Jet Blue and have a good day.”

At the pilot’s announcement, Jake stirs and Amy manages to sit up moments before he opens his eyes.

His voice is heavy with sleep as he asks, “we’re here?” and she files the image of a barely awake Jake away in her brain as another new piece of information about him before gathering up her stuff and pushing him towards the aisle.

The process of leaving the plane and passing through customs takes Amy far longer than she would like and they both hurry past baggage claim with their carry-ons towards the queue of taxis outside the airport. The overwhelming heat hits them the moment they step outside and they shrug off cardigans and sweaters in favour of their t-shirts underneath.

“How far is the hotel from here?”

“It should be about a twenty minute taxi ride.”

There is a queue of taxis waiting for arriving passengers but Amy’s attention is instead caught by a familiar figure hovering by the door. Her brother, Luca, is waving madly at her and he hurries towards her the moment she catches his eye.

“What are you doing here?” she asks as she hugs him tightly. “I told you we’d get a taxi.”

“I managed to talk the rest of our siblings out of coming here to ambush you and your boyfriend. This was the only option.”

“Please don’t embarrass me,” she pleads quietly as Jake walks over to join them.

He firmly shakes Jake’s hand. “You must be the famous Jake who puts up with our Amy.”

“It’s more like her putting up with me.”

“Jake, this is my brother, Luca. Anything he tells you is a lie.”

“As if I would make up lies about you. Every glorious, embarrassing thing you hear about her is totally true.”

Amy punches him in the arm for that.

“Seriously, all lies.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t sell you out, sis. I’m sure Alex and Edgar already have far more exciting and embarrassing things planned for you.”

“Oh god,” she groans, dropping her head into her hands as Luca laughs and takes their bags.

“This trip is already amazing.” Jake grins before taking hold of her hand. As his fingers intertwine with hers, she feels like her hand is on fire and she can’t help but jolt at his touch. “If we’re going to be a fake couple this week then we’re going to have to hold hands occasionally. I’ve heard it’s what couples do,” he whispers in her ear after checking to make sure Luca is out of earshot.

She nods, unable to summon any words because her entire brain seems to be short circuiting, and allows him to lead her over to the waiting taxi. He doesn’t let go the entire ride to the hotel and she knows she should be focusing on the beautiful view rushing past the window but all she can think about is how his hand feels in hers.

When they arrive at the hotel, Jake acts like the perfect gentlemen, collecting their luggage from the trunk and brushing off her attempts to carry her own. She spots various members of her family wandering through the lobby but they’re distant enough relatives that she gets away with a wave and smile.

Smiling brightly, the receptionist greets them cheerfully. Jake catches Amy's eye and grins, making her turn away quickly before she starts laughing because this woman looks exactly like Rosa if she had a penchant for pink glasses and showing joy.

“I have the two of you staying in room 230, one of our studios with an ocean view.”

Amy double checks the reservation email on her phone and shakes her head. “I think there’s been a mistake. I booked a regular double room.”

“Yes you did but we have a note here that the bride arranged upgrades for all members of her bridal party. You’re in one of our very best rooms.” She slides two key cards across the desk. “Have the most amazing stay."

They manage to make it to the elevator before bursting into laughter, much to the disapproval of the elderly couple who share their ride to the fourth floor.

Even the corridors of the hotel are extravagant and  they let out simultaneous low whistles as they enter their hotel room. Amy’s original room had left a massive dent in her savings but she guesses this room would have destroyed them entirely. From the doorway they can see straight out to the ocean. There are marble floors and Jake lets out a Charles like squeal over the plunge pool on their balcony while Amy coos over the walk-in shower and luxurious looking bathtub. However they both come to a stop in the middle of the room and stare at the bed in front of them.

“There were supposed to be two beds. I booked a room with two beds.”

They both stare at it as if another bed will magically appear if they wait long enough.

“When your cousin changed the reservation, it must have cancelled out your request for a double room.” Jake drops down on the bed and picks up the phone. “We can call them and change it.”

Grabbing the phone from him, Amy slams it down. “No. If we change the room then Alexa is going to want to know why.”

“Fine.” Jake looks around the room and sighs. “I’ll sleep on the sofa out there.”

“You can’t sleep on the balcony, Jake. And that sofa is tiny.” Their remaining options are the bathtub or the hard marble floor and she shakes her head, carefully considering her next words. “We can share the bed.” Jake gives her a look of panic and she hurries on. “It’s a huge bed. There’s more than enough room for the both of us. We’ll put some pillows in the middle.”

“Amy-“

“It’s fine, Jake. We’re both adults and it’s only for a few nights.”

He still looks hesitant but he finally nods before throwing his holdall in the direction of the wardrobe.

“Have I got time to shower before dinner?”

Her heart sinks a little at the thought of the family dinner Alexa has scheduled for that evening; the first real test of their lie. “Yeah you’ve got time. Aren’t you going to unpack first though?”

“We’re on holiday. Why would I unpack stuff when I’m just going to put it back in the same holdall in four days’ time?”

She wants to correct him but then he’s tugging off his t-shirt as he walks towards the bathroom and she forces herself to look away, suddenly at a loss for words as the image of his bare back burns itself into her brain while he closes the door. Flopping down on the bed, she tugs a pillow over her face and lets out a muffled scream of frustration. This was supposed to be a simple way to get her family off her back and to avoid the embarrassment of attending another wedding solo. But there are butterflies in her stomach and she feels like she did when she was sixteen and madly in love with Adam Harlow, the smartest senior who didn’t even know she existed.

 She’s a grown adult; she should be able to deal with this.

The sound of the shower switching on is audible through the wall and the image of Jake standing under the water is suddenly startlingly clear in her mind. Her partner - her attractive, cute, funny partner - is naked on the other side of a very thin wall and that sends a rush of heat through her whole body.

“Pull it together, Amy,” she mutters under her breath before forcing herself off the bed. She settles for focusing on unpacking her luggage, determinedly running through every police code she can think of in an effort to stem any more images of a very naked Jake appearing in her brain.

She has just about managed to calm her heart rate down when the bathroom door opens, releasing a cloud of steam into the cool bedroom. Jake walks out and Amy audibly gulps as she takes in the towel slung low on his hips and the drops of water trailing down his chest.

“All yours,” he says. If he notices her lingering look, he doesn’t mention it. “How dressy is this thing going to be?”

If she was capable of rational thought then she would rifle through Jake’s luggage and pick out something appropriate but she barely manages to mumble something about slacks and dress shirts before she’s gathering all of her stuff and locking herself in the bathroom, determinedly thinking about anything except Jake in a towel.

The cold water is sharp and bracing as she sets the shower onto the coolest setting and she lets it wash over her, imaging the water washing away all of the ridiculous feelings that are already seeping out of her. She spends every day with Jake and has managed to get this far without making a complete idiot of herself. She’ll be damned if she is going to let a few nights in a fancy hotel undo all of her hard work.

By the time she’s out of the shower, her sense of determination is invigorated and she focuses on the aspects of her beauty routine that normally only occur when Kylie has plied her with alcohol and coaxed her into going out. She keeps her make-up soft and lets her dark hair fall around her face. The green dress she had bought in a moment of panic last week isn’t her usual style but she feels amazing in it, which had been enough to keep her from wincing too visibly as the sales assistant swiped her card. The hemline rests just below her knee but the dress is strapless with origami-style folds over the bust. When she pulls on her heels and adds a swipe of lipstick, she feels full of confidence. And, as she emerges back into the bedroom, Jake grins widely at her.

“Wow, Amy. You look beautiful.”

She smiles. “You don’t scrub up too bad yourself.”

Jake is wearing a dark suit and crisp white shirt, two items she had no idea he actually owned, and, as he takes her arm, the scent of his cologne drifts over her. Her heart skips a beat but she takes a breath and lets him lead the way out of their room.

“Okay so remind me of all your brothers, “ he asks as they board the elevator and make their way to the lobby.

“You’ve already met Luca. He’s the second youngest and lives in Boston. He’s getting his doctorate in political science. Marco is the baby and he’s working at a record store while still holding out hope his band will make it. Never ask to listen to their music. They’re terrible. Then there’s Alex. Him and his girlfriend Julia both teach in the Bronx. We don’t really like Julia but we haven’t figured out how to make him dump her yet.” Jake snorts at that and she makes a mental note to introduce him to Julia, the dullest person she has ever met. “That’s all the younger ones. Next you’ve got Dan and Edgar, the twins. Dan is a bigshot environmental lawyer in the city and his wife Naomi is pregnant with their first. Whereas Edgar is the total opposite. He’s living in California at the moment and he keeps claiming he’s trying to find himself or something but he spends most days just sleeping on this dude’s sofa and cooking lasagne for breakfast. We never really know what’s going on with him. Rudi is the second oldest and he’s a cop too out in Philly. Him and his partner, Michael, adopted twin girls last year, Beth and Eva. Then Rafael is my biggest brother and he’s a neurosurgeon over at Pres. Him and Ali have got three boys, Patrick, Anthony and Miguel.”

They’re out of the elevator and halfway across the lobby by the time she finishes and Jake looks slightly pale. She hasn’t even got onto all her aunts, uncles and cousins yet but he already seems overwhelmed. She feels bad. This madness was all her idea and she has allowed him to submit himself to the insanity of her family with no real idea what he’s letting himself in for. Instinctively she takes his hand and squeezes it, his palm rough against hers. He smiles at her, that warm, kind smile that is so overwhelmingly Jake, and she feels that familiar rush of warmth flooding her body.

‘This is all just pretend,’ she reminds herself, pushing the sneakily encroaching mushy feelings aside.

Thankfully she is saved from any further battles with her emotions by a shout of ‘worm!’ from across the lobby. Edgar is stood by the patio doors clad in a hideously bright Hawaiian shirt, apparently finding neither his attire nor his choice to yell in a five star hotel to be a source of embarrassment.

“Worm?”

“I read a look of books growing up.” Jake still looks confused. “Bookworm.”

He thinks for a moment. “Pineapples and Worm. That’d be a terrible name for a detective show.”

She’s barely started to laugh before Edgar reaches them and scoops her up in a massive bear hug. Fruitlessly she wriggles against him before giving in and hugging him back. As he puts her down, she automatically scans his face and notes that he’s looking healthier than he did the last time she saw him a year ago after he broke into her apartment and scared her half to death when she woke up to him asleep on her sofa.

“You are looking super fancy,” he says, twirling her around before hugging her again. “I’ve missed you, sis.” His hug is tighter this time and she promises herself she’ll get better at checking in with him. He may be two years older than her but it’ll always be her job to look after him.

“Where did you get this?” She tugs at his shirt and gives him a look of disapproval.

“Hotel gift shop. The airline lost my luggage.”

It’s far more likely he forgot to actually pack any appropriate luggage but she doesn’t prod. In her peripheral vision she can see Jake shoving his hands in his pockets and it must register with Edgar too because he quickly embraces Jake who stands stiffly for a moment before awkwardly patting her brother’s back.

“You must be the boyfriend.”

She takes a deep breath.

“This is Jake.” She moves closer to him and he wraps his arm around her waist. They deserve brownie points for the fact that neither of them so much as falter at this new point of contact. “He’s my boyfriend.” The words feel odd in her mouth and she panics because Edgar frowns and maybe he feels the oddness too. “We’re dating.”

“Duh, why else would he be here?  Stop being weird. Come on, mom keeps asking if you’ve arrived yet.”

Edgar turns and heads back towards the restaurant but Jake pulls her back before she can follow.

“You need to chill out. If you keep acting weird then people will think that something is up.”

“I’m not being weird,” she protests.

“He’s my boyfriend. We’re dating,” he mimics and she cringes at her own words. “Just relax.”

“I can’t.” They start to follow after Edgar and she can feel her palms sweating. Anxiously she wipes them on her dress before taking Jake’s hand again. “This was a terrible idea. Why did I do this?”

“Okay so maybe we get a couple of drinks into you and then you relax,” Jake hisses and they both visibly steel themselves before they open the doors and walk into the restaurant that’s hosting the entire Santiago clan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact #1: Almost every fic I've written has included Jake wearing glasses because Andy Samberg in glasses is one of my favourite things in the world. There was no way they weren't appearing in this one too.
> 
> Fun fact #2: Edgar is basically Edgar from You're the Worst because I can totally see Amy having this brother who doesn't have his shit together and who she always looks out for. There are adorable pictures of Melissa and Desmin Borges together at a Fox party last year and I need them to cast him as one of the Santiago siblings.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to meet the parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who read the last chapter. It's been amazing to see everyone liking and commenting on the last chapter. I'm really happy you're all enjoying reading it as much as I am writing it!
> 
> This chapter got away from me a little bit because the Santiago family is so much fun to write and I'm slowly fancasting Amy's family in my head. Papa Santiago is a mix of Enrico Colantoni (aka the greatest TV dad in existence, Keith Mars) and Hector Elizondo, while Dan is the amazing Lin-Manuel Miranda (I know the show could never get him because he's extremely busy with the fantastic Hamilton, but Melissa's tweet made me want it so badly). 
> 
> Enjoy!

These days, there are few times in Amy’s life when she doesn’t feel confident and prepared. While her high school career had been littered with panic attacks and bouts of anxiety, the discovery of Xanax in her freshman year of college had led her to the calm and relaxed feeling she so desperately craved before an important presentation or huge final. Now, in her thirties, her anxiety has been channelled into focused work and a determined attitude. That combined with a greater sense of confidence in herself has left her prepared and ready for almost any situation that comes up in her daily life.

This, however, is not such a situation.

As they pass through the doors of the restaurant, Amy notes that her Xanax from the plane ride has long since worn off and her palms are beginning to sweat. This whole thing seems like an absolutely terrible idea, even worse than the time Kylie had convinced her to skip an entire day of college to go see Timberlake and Aguilera on tour and she had ended up missing a pop quiz worth ten percent of her grade.

Jake seems to register her nerves, most likely due to having her sweaty hand pressed against his, and nods towards the bar, which she reciprocates with a smile of gratitude. Normally she chooses to keep a clear head when she’s around her family but alcohol seems like the only sensible solution in this moment.

Santiagos are swarming around the room and their chatter buzzes in her skull as she puts faces to names partly for Jake’s benefit but mostly to keep her mind off the ridiculousness of their plan. As they weave through the crowd, she points out her Aunt Jane who got into a blazing row with her soon to be ex-husband at the last family gathering, and her cousin Phillipe who still refuses to admit that he doesn’t actually work at Vogue even though Rafael saw him working at Forever 21 last month. Her family is eclectic to say the least but she feels a familiar rush of love as she shares details of them with Jake. They are the most important people in the world to her. Now she has the chance to share them with one of the other most important people in her life.

‘It’s just pretend,’ she reminds herself as they reach the bar and his hand falls from hers. Already they’ve begun to fall into easy routines and they’re only hours into this charade; a charade which was her idea and which Jake has only gone along with for her benefit. The line she’s walking is blurred and she knows she needs to be careful or the fallout from all of this will be disastrous.

While Jake signals to catch the bartender’s attention, Amy shifts to look around the room before stopping as the familiar scent of tobacco and dusty books wafts over her. Leaning against the bar in the old tweed jacket that her mother has been trying to secretly dispose of for almost a decade is her father. He’s wearing his glasses that are almost as large as her own pair, sipping a scotch, and almost certainly trying to work out how long he has to stay here to be polite.

“Hi papi.”

His face lights up as he realises who’s talking and he wraps his arms around her, hugging her tightly and kissing her hair. When she was a little girl, she had always rushed home from school to wait in her father’s study for him to come home. Her brothers had raced out to the yard to play until sunset but Amy had always chosen the large armchair and one of the books her father kept in his study just for her. The sound of his key in the lock had always sent her hurtling from the room and she still remembers the way it felt to throw herself into his arms, the rough material of his jacket scratching her cheek and the smell of tobacco making her nose wrinkle.

The sensation is still the same but, as she pulls away, she falls into the newer habit of cataloguing the ways he has changed since she last saw him. It’s a strange and disconcerting feeling when the roles reverse and you begin to worry about your parents rather than them always worrying about you. There are new lines around his eyes, the wrinkles in his forehead are more pronounced, and the little hair he has left is almost completely grey. But his eyes sparkle behind his glasses while his grin is the same wide, warm smile that litters her childhood memories.

“How are you?”

“Don’t you worry about me, mija. How are you? Are you taking care of yourself? You’re not working too hard, are you? There was an article in the Times last weekend about you millennials overworking yourselves and not taking care of yourselves.”

Her father’s tradition of poring over the New York Times with coffee and eggs every Sunday has led to him always developing a new concern about the lives of her and her siblings. Of all the things they’ve done, teaching their father to email may be the biggest regret of the Santiago children because their Sundays are spent fielding emails from him about whether they’re meeting strangers on social media or renting an apartment from a landlord who’s secretly filming them. When the Times had run an article the previous month on exploitation in nail salons, Amy had received three separate  emails concerning her manicure habits as well as a thirty minute phone call on how her abuela hadn’t left Cuba to see her grandchildren exploiting their peers.

“I’m not being overworked.” She’s tempted to point out she’s also barely a millennial, falling into the category by only a year or two, but that will just make him start searching to find out what other potential problems she could be facing. “Work is good.”

“I know what my father was like when he got caught up in a case, and the news is always talking about the police and the problems. You need to relax.”

“There are no problems at work. It’s not like you see on the news. And I think a few days in the Caribbean is a pretty good way to relax.”

He murmurs in agreement before eyeing the room. “Alexa always did know how to go overboard. How much do you think this party cost? The orchestra alone must have set Antonio back a few hundred.”

There is an actual orchestra serenading guests in the far corner but that is far from the most opulent aspect of the evening. There’s a champagne tower as well as an ice sculpture and a chocolate fountain that’s caught the attention of the younger guests. Cream linens and crystal glasses are on every table as well as lilies that must have been imported just for tonight. Hundreds of candles light the room and wait staff drift almost invisibly around the room, passing out canapes and champagne without a word. Amy half expects doves to be unleashed at any moment.

It’s everything Alexa has dreamed of and it makes Amy tired just looking at it.

“You’re not planning something this extravagant for your own wedding, are you, mija?”

His words make Amy cough violently and her cheeks flush as she sees the amused twinkle in her father’s eye. While her mother pushes her on the topic of marriage and children, her father is the one who reminds her that there are more important things in the world than getting married. However he does enjoy how uncomfortable the subject always makes her whenever it is brought up.

Before she can reprimand him though, she feels a presence at her side and she turns to see Jake holding a beer as well as a cocktail. 

“Thanks.” Her drink at Shaw’s is normally a wine or beer but, when she’s particularly stressed or run down, she always chooses a cranberry sour. It’s summer and happiness in a glass,  a description Jake – who’d screwed his face up and downed the whole of his beer after trying one sip - has never been able to understand. The fact that he remembered her order and knew that that was the exact drink she’d need brings a smile to her face before she’s even taken a sip of the fruity concoction.

“So are you going to introduce me?” Her father is watching the two of them closely, the twinkle in his eye even more pronounced, and she knows he’s already studying their interaction and making his own judgements.

This is it. The first real test of their lie.

“Papi, this is my boyfriend, Jake Peralta. Jake, this is my dad, Elias Santiago.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.” Jake automatically holds his hand to her father, offering him a firm handshake, which garners a nod of respect. Her parents are practically obsessed with good manners and spent years instilling them in their children. When they had met Mark, the man she had once thought she would marry, he had merely offered them a nod while staying seated in his chair. That was the moment she should have known their relationship was doomed.

“Please call me Elias. It’s good to finally meet you, Jake.” He falls silent. Jake shifts uncomfortably as the older man begins to appraise him before standing up straight and doing his best not to look intimidated while Amy rolls her eyes at the pair. Her father is a walking , talking teddy bear but he likes to believe he can actually be scary when he chooses to even though it was always her mother who had handed out the discipline in their home. “So what exactly are your intentions with my daughter? I can assume it’s serious for her since she brought you here. Do you feel the same?”

Amy knows she shouldn’t be amused by this act but the normally confident Jake is shifting on the spot like a trapped animal and scratching at the back of his neck, the tell that he’s panicked and out of his depth, so she settles for biting the inside of her cheek and watching her fake boyfriend fluster.

“Sir, Amy is…She’s…I’ve been having a lot of fun with her and…”

“Fun?” Her father’s nostrils flare and Amy swears she almost chokes as she forces down a shout of laughter. “Is that all my beautiful daughter is to you, a bit of fun?”

“No, sir! I meant that our relationship has been really good so far-“

“So it’s been good but you’re ready to drop everything and run the moment it stops being fun? You’re the kind of man, or rather, boy, who bails when things get tough, then?

“I didn’t mean that.” His voice has crept up an octave, and she swears she hasn’t seen him this uncomfortable since an eighty-eight year-old grandma had propositioned him using language so explicit that even Rosa would have blushed. “I really like Amy and she’s so important to me. She’s my best friend.” Her amusement vanishes because that’s not one of the lines they’ve practiced.

“I am?”

She doesn’t mean to interrupt but the question escapes her without her even realising.

“Of course you are.” He gives her a look that tells her he thinks she’s being ridiculous.

“I thought Charles was your best friend?”

“He is. Best friend isn’t a person; it’s a tier. You, Charles and Gina are my best friends. I’d say Rosa too but she’d probably kill me or tell me to stop having emotions near her.”

He states it like it’s obvious. They’re best friends. She’s thought of them as being good friends for years now but best friends is something else entirely and suddenly it feels like there are butterflies in her stomach.

She doesn’t get a chance to respond though because Jake notices her father is grinning widely and chortling under his breath.

“I didn’t mean to scare you, son. You’ll have to excuse an old man looking for some amusement in this hellish place.” When his laughter fades, he looks at Jake seriously, the intimidation now replaced by something akin to admiration. “You obviously care about my daughter a great deal. That is the only thing that matters to me.”

“I do, sir.” The look he gives her makes the butterflies intensify because she knows that look; she’s seen that look before, months ago when her own feelings were messy and unclear. She didn’t think she’d see it again. But then Jake blinks and it’s gone, leaving her confused and unsure. “Amy is amazing.”

“Well that’s something we can agree on. I look forward to getting to know you better this weekend. You do play golf, don’t you?”

“Um-“

“Excellent. Rudi and Dan are joining me for a game on Friday. You’ll have to come with us. Now don’t let me keep you. Your mother is around here somewhere and she’ll kill me if I keep you from her.”

They leave her father with the promise to join him for lunch tomorrow and a reminder for Jake to visit the golf course and hire some clubs – “you didn’t bring your own with you, did you?” her father asks optimistically – and begin to circulate the room. Her aunt Jasmine hugs the both of them, not noticing or ignoring them choking on her cloying perfume, before pinching Jake’s cheeks, while her cousin Rubio tackles him in greeting.

“Your family is interesting.” He winces and rubs his back where it had made contact with a marble pillar. Rubio had apologised but what was her idiotic cousin expected when his 6’4” frame slammed into her boyfriend?

“That’s one way of putting it. And you haven’t even met most of my brothers yet or my m-“

Her words are literally knocked out of her as a tiny whirlwind crashes into her and wraps her in bone-crushing hug. The force is enough to make her stumble on her heels but her mother doesn’t notice, only hugging her tighter before stepping back and examining her with the steely gaze that could probably make mafia bosses spill all their secrets in ten seconds flat.

“Where have you been? Luca picked you up hours ago and now is when you finally decide to say hello. I suppose you’ve already chatted to your father.”

“I-“

“And this must be the famous Jake,” she barrels on. Even in her heels, her mother is a good six inches shorter than Jake but that doesn’t stop her tugging him down to press a kiss to his cheek. It leaves a fuchsia mark on his skin and Amy automatically reaches up to wipe it away. “Look at you two. Oh it makes me so happy. You know, Jake, I was starting to worry my Amy would never find love.”

“Please don’t tell the story.”

Her mother ignores her. “When she was six, Amy stood up in the middle of Thanksgiving and declared to the entire room that she was thankful that no one could ever make her get married because boys were gross and she would never marry one as long as she lived.”

Jake bursts out laughing and she glares at him but it does little to make him stop.

“Oh that’s fantastic. Please tell me you have more stories like that.”

Her mother’s face lights up. Only two of Amy’s former boyfriends made it to the meet the parents stage and neither of them showed a particular interest in hearing stories of her childhood or in her parents in general. Her mother is loud and opinionated, and both Simon and Mark had been polite but cool with her. Jake is immediately enthralled however and he offers his arm to her mother before leading the two of them on a walk around the ballroom. The laughter of the pair echoes back to Amy and she smiles.

It may be pretend but she can’t help but feel touched at how quickly her parents have taken to Jake. Their judgement is the most important thing in the world to her so to see them embracing one of the people dearest to her leaves her feeling warm and happy.

“There she is!”

The shout is the only warning she gets before she’s swarmed by a group of her brothers who scoop her up even as she yells in protest, creating a strange group bear hug that draws looks from more distant family members who don’t appreciate their hollering and whooping.

Eventually they break apart and she grins up at a Rudi, Dan and Alex.

“Where’s the boyfriend?”

“Yeah we’ve heard all about him from Luca and Edgar.”

“How come they got to meet him and we didn’t?”

“Are you ashamed of us?”

It’s been more than a decade since she lived in a house crowded with noisy guys and it takes a moment for her brain to sort through their barrage of questions along with their yelling and shoving.

“The boyfriend’s name is Jake and he’s talking to mama.” Like a pack of meerkats, they turn to see Jake and their mom picking at canapes and talking quietly, their heads close together like a pair of conspirators.

“Well if ma likes him then he’s got to be alright.”

“He supports the Nets. That automatically makes him alright.”

“Because that’s the making of a decent human being, Alex,” Amy says. “And to answer your other question, Luca and Edgar met him first because  Luca came to the airport to get up and Edgar ambushed us in the lobby. Also did none of you even try to stop Edgar from wearing that shirt?”

“It’s a great shirt.” Dan gestures to his twin who’s currently building some kind of canape tower and hasn’t noticed the marinara sauce he’s spilt on his garish shirt.

“You’re idiots. All idiots.”

The tinkling of a champagne glass rings through the room and silence falls as everyone turns on mass to see Alexa and Asher stood at the front of the room.

“Good evening, everyone.” Alexa is using her awful affected accent and Jake catches Amy’s gaze from the other side of the room before rolling his eyes. “We are so glad you could all come and celebrate this special occasion with us. It means the world to me and Asher.” Asher, for his part, looks slightly intoxicated and a little like his tie is trying to choke him. “However there will be plenty of time for speeches and catching up throughout this incredible weekend. For now though, dinner is served.”

On cue, new wait staff swarm in through the double doors carrying plates of steaming hot food, an obvious signal for everyone to take their seats.

There’s a seating arrangement and Amy eyes the obvious singles table before breathing a sigh of relief and sliding into a seat next to Jake. They’re joined by Rudi and Michael, Dan and Naomi, Alex and Julia, and Edgar who has rejected his singles seat and instead dragged another chair over to their table. Amy can see Alexa seething from her own table but she also knows her cousin is too polite to make a scene in front of everyone.

“So Jake,” Alex starts, neither noticing or caring that his mouth is full of food. “I hear you support the Nets.”

“Have done since I was seven.” His tone is uncertain as if he might be walking into a trap and Amy allows herself to put her hand on his knee and squeeze it in reassurance. She knows there’s nothing more daunting than facing her brothers, even a small contingent of them, before you get to know them and realise they’re just immature puppies who make bad jokes and get too competitive. He gives her a look of thanks, allowing her to breathe a sigh of relief that this new point of contact hasn’t crossed some invisible line.

“Good. Once Ames brought home a guy who supported the Knicks; worst thing she’s ever done.”

“You held that over Simon’s head for six months!”

“Yeah until you did the right thing and dumped him.”

“I didn’t dump him because he supported the Knicks.”

“Well you should’ve,” Alex fires back, smirking and then poking his tongue out at her.

“Rudi, knock some sense into these two.”

“Why? They’re right, sis. Dating a Knicks fan is an insult to everything this family holds dear.”

“Which is what? Basketball?”

“Yes!” all four of her brothers declare simultaneously, which makes Jake snort into his drink.

“That reminds me, you should join us at our game back in New York, Jake.”

“You play basketball?”

“Yeah, on a Saturday down in the village. It’s just us and a few guys, and we could use an extra player.”

“You should know that they get insanely competitive,” Amy stage whispers behind her glass.

“A Santiago being competitive. That’s new.”

He grins at her and she tries to stop herself from grinning back because he looks so damn pleased with himself. He has every reason to though. Her parents like him and her brothers have already warmed to him enough to invite him to their pick-up game, which she knows they treat like a sacred ritual. She smiles happily at him because she knows how much it means to Jake to have a family like him and embrace him, and then she sours. This isn’t real. There won’t be pick-up games or anything else with her family because they’re all learning to like a guy based on a lie. This is all pretend and when they get back to Brooklyn, this whole charade will be over, and she’s going to be left to explain to her family what’s happened with the guy they all already like so much.

For much of the meal, she sits in silence, stewing over what is going to happen after this weekend, while she barely tastes the expensive steak she’s eating. The banter between her brothers and Jake drifts over her head and Naomi abandons attempts to talk after getting little more than one word answers in response. She’s on her third drink by the time desert is cleared away, only becoming aware of the evening changing when Jake takes her hand and pulls her onto the dance floor.

“What’s going on with you?” he asks as they start to dance, barely wincing as she stands on his toes.

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me, Ames. You were fine until your brothers invited me to their game and then you got all weird and quiet. Do you not want me to go?”

He looks so upset that she rushes to explain. “No, it’s not that. It’s just-“ She glances around but all the other couples seem utterly absorbed in their own  conversations. “We’re not really dating,” she whispers. “We’re not dating and they all like you and want you to come to basketball games and-“

“Your mom invited me to Sunday lunch when we get back.”

“See! They’re inviting you to basketball games and Sunday lunches. They don’t do that. My parents met Mark once and then made excuses not to see him again until we eventually broke up. And my brothers tortured Simon for months. They don’t like the people I date but they like you. When we get back to New York, we’re either going to have to keep fake dating for the rest of our lives or I’m going to have to break up with the only guy they’ve ever liked.”

“Amy, don’t panic. It’ll be fine. We’ll figure something out. You can tell them it didn’t work dating someone you work with or that you realised we’re better off as friends.”

“You think they’ll buy that?”

“Of course they will.” He’s silent for a moment. Then he adds quietly, “It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

That startles her.

“What?”

“When I told you I liked you, I knew you were with Teddy, but there had to have been a reason you chose to stay with him rather than being with me. After all that stuff went down at the bed and breakfast, I figured out you’d realised it wasn’t worth risking everything we have for something that might fail.”

His voice is quiet and sincere and he’s looking at a spot beyond her shoulder rather than at her. She knows how much Jake hates emotions, and the whole topic of _them_ has always been messy and raw. They never got it right. He liked her and she was with someone else. Then she liked him and he was with someone else. They’ve never talked about them and what they felt because the timing was always wrong. And then Jake moved on, leaving her with a pile of gooey, mushy feelings and no use for them. She never thought he had considered her own thinking in those long six months when he was away, trying to find the logic in her decision. But apparently he had.

“Jake-“

“It’s time I got to dance with my beautiful sister.”

Edgar, an expert at intruding at the wrong time, is a little drunk but he tugs her away from Jake and forces her to start dancing in the inelegant and clumsy way that is apparently an innate part of every Santiago.

She loses Jake after that, only catching glances of him through the crowds, and he always seems to be dancing with one Santiago woman or another, charming them with his wide grin and elegant dance moves. Meanwhile Amy whirls around the dancefloor with the men of her family, giggling and spinning until her head hurts and her feet ache.

When the party is winding down and she’s finishing an awful waltz with her Uncle Jon,  an arm slides around her waist and she finds herself being pulled against Jake. His eyes are unfocused and he’s wobbling slightly but the smile on his face is wide and warm.

“Your family is terrible at dancing.”

“It’s part of being a Santiago. We’re all born with two left feet.”

“I may never walk again.” He stares down at his own feet. “You ready to go?”

She nods and waves goodbye to her family before allowing herself to lean against him as they head upstairs. She knows she should mention earlier, that she can’t leave the conversation unfinished, but there is alcohol in her veins, Jake is warm against her side and a wave of contentment is washing over her. So instead she walks quietly up to their room with Jake humming some disjointed tune under his breath, swaying as they go.

When they get inside, he claims the bathroom first while she kicks off her shoes and stands on the balcony, staring out at the ocean. The view is beautiful. Here the night sky is littered with stars, and the sound of waves crashing on the beach echo up to her. It’s peaceful, tranquil and decidedly romantic.

“Bathroom’s yours, Ames.”

She leaves her thoughts on romance out on the balcony and settles into her usual nightly routine, washing her face and brushing her teeth while thinking about anything except the man on the other side of the door.

By the time she’s removed all traces of that evening’s look and swapped her fancy dress for an old NYPD t-shirt and leggings, Jake is already in bed, clad in a similar t-shirt to hers. He has his reading glasses on and is scrolling through his phone, no doubt catching up on whatever they’ve missed back home, and, as she looks at him, the feeling of longing that hits her is overwhelming. This could have been her life if she had chosen differently last year instead of being safe and cautious. Instead of her empty apartment, she could have had Jake in her bed in those ridiculous glasses, waiting for her.  

“I wasn’t sure what side of the bed you normally slept on. Is this okay? Nice shirt by the way.”

She tugs self-consciously at her t-shirt before climbing into bed beside Jake.

The bed is huge, the kind you only find in hotels, but she still feels horribly aware of his body only inches from her own. In their years working together, they’ve been in numerous intimate situations that cross boundaries you wouldn’t normally cross. They’ve seen each other at their very worst. But sharing a bed is whole other level of intimacy and she can’t help but lie stiffly as Jake shifts next to her.

There’s a click and then the room plunges into darkness.

“You don’t have to go to sleep just because I am. I can sleep through the light.”

“No it’s alright. I can always catch up on Gina’s live tweeting of Suits tomorrow.”

The sound of fidgeting comes from over her shoulder and she listens as Jake puts his phone and glasses on the side before lying down and shifting next to her. It feels like every part of her is alert and aware of him, her skin tingling as the warmth from his body reaches  her own.

“Night, Amy.”

“Night, Jake.”

He falls asleep first, his breath slowly evening out and deepening as he drifts off to sleep, and Amy has no idea how long she lays awake for just listening to him breathe next to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life is going to be a little busy now - I've got six hours of parents' evenings, twenty four kiddos to test and assess, a school term to wrap up, and my mum's birthday - so the next update will most likely be in a couple of weeks time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trip to the beach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you so much to everyone who is reading, leaving kudos, and taking the time to write comments. This probably sounds repetitive now but it's so wonderful to open my email to alerts about new comments and kudos. It makes me really happy that everyone is enjoying this so much. 
> 
> And there's new Brooklyn Nine-Nine tonight! I honestly might be more excited for this episode than I was the premiere, and I'm going to have to do a Halloween episode marathon before I watch it.

The morning sun is bright as it shines into the room and Amy’s first coherent thought of the morning is that she should have remembered to draw the curtains fully last night. However, it takes her brain a good few seconds to realise that it is not the New York sun shining through her bedroom window, and she blearily opens her eyes before slamming them shut as the glare of the beautiful Caribbean weather burns her eyes. She emits a quiet groan before slowly opening her eyes again, easing herself into both the weather and the day.  

As her brain catches up with her body, the events of yesterday come crashing back to her – the flight, the hotel, the dinner, _Jake_ – and she turns her head quickly to find the aforementioned man lying next to her, still fast asleep. It’s unsurprising to discover he’s as chaotic in his sleep as he is in life. Though she remembers him falling asleep on his side, he’s lying on his front now with his head turned towards her. The covers on his side are almost completely kicked off, one leg hanging over the end of the bed and the other tangled up in the sheet, while one arm rests underneath his head and the other is draped across her stomach. His hair is wild and messy and his mouth is hanging open as he snores softly. The only thing missing from the tableau is a small pool of drool on his pillow.

His arm is warm and heavy against her stomach and his fingers are barely brushing her skin at the spot where her t-shirt has rolled up in the night. She should move away. She should get up and shower or go for a run; she should do anything except continue lying in bed. But she’s comfortable and this is the closest Jake has ever allowed her to be to him when his defences are down. So she lies there and studies his face. He looks impossibly young without his usual cockiness and bravado attitude. Amy has seen countless sides to Jake Peralta in the eight years she’s known him, many parts of himself he only shows to a select few people and which she feels very privileged to have seen, but this Jake, the raw, real Jake, is unfamiliar to her. This is who Jake is at his core when all the pretences and layers have crumbled away, and it’s beautiful. 

The shrill sound of the alarm shatters the silence of the room and Amy sees Jake’s brow wrinkle and his body shift at the disturbance pulling him from his sleep. Taking advantage of his barely conscious state, she slips out from underneath his arm and switches it off.

When she turns back round, she finds Jake staring at her through sleepy eyes.

“What time is it?” he asks, his voice scratchy and heavy with sleep.

“Eight.”

He groans and buries his face in his pillow. “Too early. Sleep.”

Amy assumes that he’s fallen back to sleep but then an arm shoots out from under the sheets and tugs her back down onto the mattress with a yelp.

“Jake!”

“It’s your vacation, Ames,” he murmurs in his half-asleep gravelly voice that makes her stomach do somersaults. “No alarms. Go back to sleep.”

She wants to protest because she doesn’t do lie-ins and the snooze button. However the bed is warm and comfortable, and enduring her family this early in the morning doesn’t seem particularly appealing, so she resets the alarm for an hour’s time and crawls back under the covers. It only takes a moment for Jake to shift closer to her and he wraps an arm tightly around her before pulling her against him.

“See? Isn’t sleeping better?” he mumbles into her hair, his breath warm against her neck, as if snuggling is a normal part of their routine.

She knows she should move away, that this is crossing the line once again, but this is the most comfortable she’s felt in forever and it’s only a cuddle; it’s harmless. That’s the thought she reiterates to herself as she drifts off to sleep.

The alarm sounds again an hour later and Amy manages to wriggle free of Jake’s embrace to shut it off and disappear into the bathroom. By the time she’s showered and dressed for the day, Jake has buried himself underneath the mountain of pillows and blankets, groaning loudly as she pokes him awake.

“Go away.”

“Calm down, grouchy.” The truth is that Jake’s hatred of mornings is incredibly adorable but she’s not going to let him know that. “Alexa hasn’t got anything planned until the bachelor and bachelorette parties tonight so it’s basically a beach day meaning you can sleep as long as you want and come and find me later.”

Her expectation is that she’ll get a thumbs up or a nod, some bleary sign of approval, before her partner falls back to sleep until at least midday. Instead, though, he rolls over, emerging from the blankets with his hair in disarray and a crease from the pillow pressed into his cheek, and grins at her.

“Sleep in and miss out on the chance to see you actually relaxing for once? I don’t think so.”

A burst of energy overtakes him, the grogginess gone, and he bounds out of bed and over to his holdall, rifling through the contents and seemingly not caring about the mess he’s making as he throws things aside.

And if Amy maybe enjoys the view of Jake in boxers then that’s her own business.

“Give me five minutes and I’ll be ready.”

He disappears into the bathroom, leaving Amy to flop back onto the bed and think about things unrelated to how good her partner looks in his underwear and how much the bed now smells like him.

He emerges in less than three minutes in a pair of shorts and a Nets t-shirt, stubble still firmly in place and a spot of toothpaste on the side of his mouth. Amy reaches up automatically and wipes it away, freezing when she sees Jake staring at her.

“You had toothpaste-“ She gestures.

“Oh. Right. Thanks.” He blinks and smiles. “Shall we go?”

They head down to breakfast, which is out on a veranda overlooking the ocean. It’s stunning and it would be the perfect start to her day if it wasn’t for a collection of her brothers waving and hollering from a table in the middle of the terrace as they arrive.

Jake eyes the buffet table and nods towards it.

“I’ll go get us food and then I’ll continue charming your brothers.”

“They’re more excited about seeing you than me,” she calls after him and he laughs.

“It’s nice of you to finally join us.” Alex grins up from his food and waggles his eyebrows. “What kept you?”

“It’s nine in the morning,” Rudi says, “and that’s our sister. Can you try and not be you for two seconds?”

“I would but I wouldn’t want to disappoint everyone by making them miss out on my amazing self.”

Amy rolls her eyes as her two brothers bicker. They’re all well out of childhood yet she still feels like she’s back at home whenever she’s around them.

“Where are Rafael and Marco by the way? I still haven’t said hello to them.”

“Ali roped Raff into taking the boys snorkelling at the crack of dawn but he said he’d meet us at the beach later. And Marco hooked up with a waitress at the start of the party last night and no one has seen him since so he’s probably dead.”

 “That or he’s got no clue where he is and is trying to figure out how on earth to get back to us.”

They all laugh at their youngest brother’s misfortune. The baby of the family, Marco is determinedly holding off on growing up. While the rest of them have moved out and built actual lives, Marco alternates between crashing on a friend’s futon and living at home where his mom still cooks him dinner. At some point, each of them has had the pleasure of having him stay with them, and each of them has since banned him from ever doing so again.

Jake returns from the buffet and slides into the seat next to her, greeting her brothers with a grin, and passes her a plate laden with eggs, pancakes and fruit.

“You’ve got him well-trained already,” Edgar quips.

“It’s called being a gentleman; something you know nothing about,” she snarks back.

Jake is quickly pulled into a conversation with Alex and Luca about the Nets’ defeat at the hands of the Hawks in the play-offs, while Amy chats with Rudi about her nieces and nods along politely as Julia starts a one-man discussion about the merits of Serrano’s latest speech. She shares her orange juice with Jake when he realises he forgot to grab his own glass, while she steals the last of his strawberries when he’s in the middle of recounting the time he met Joe Johnson in a bar last year.

“You two are adorable,” Julia whispers to her just as she sips some of Jake’s still warm coffee and slides him her remaining pancakes.

“Oh…thanks.”

“No, seriously, how long did you say you’ve been together?”

“Four months now.”

“See I’d have guessed it was so much longer. You’re so-“ She trails off for a moment, trying to think of the right word. “Together. You’re so together. When Alex and I started dating, it took forever for us to get into that rhythm. But you two are so in-sync already.”

“Well it probably helps we’ve been working together for almost eight years.”

“Yeah, but still. I see what your mom meant about you two. You’re great together.”

Amy wants to get her to expand on what her mother has been running around telling people but Julia is gathering up her stuff and saying something about heading off to explore a library before she can ask.

* * *

 

The general consensus after breakfast is to head to the beach and Jake kisses Amy’s cheek when she tells him she’d already packed sunscreen, towels and the latest James Patterson book in her tote bag before they left the hotel room, an action that earns a mixture of exaggerated coos and retching sounds from her brothers.

Like the rest of the hotel, the private beach is beautiful with what looks like miles of golden sand and impossibly clear waters. Michael, Beth and Eva have already set up camp in a shady spot and Rudi disappears to join them, while Luca and Alex race off into the ocean without as much as a wave. A smiling man whose face is weathered by the constant sun offers them beach chairs but Edgar scoffs and starts setting up his beach towel on the sand until the man points out that they’re included in the hotel package.

Jake makes a big show of getting a beach umbrella as well and Amy happily goes along with his act that it’s for her when, of the two of them, he is the one that always burns in the sun. They set up their chairs further down the beach near another couple but close enough that her brothers can find them when they finally emerge from the water.

After she spreads her stuff out and double checks she has everything she needs, Amy takes off her sundress, and she hears rather than sees Jake’s reaction. The hitch in his breath is audible on the quiet beach as is his dry cough as he shifts on his own beach chair. The bikini had been a last minute purchase under Kylie’s watchful eye. Amy had been eyeing a modest one-piece in black when Kylie had shoved the scalloped white bikini into her arms and forced her to try it on. It’s far more revealing than anything she would have chosen for herself but her friend had whistled when she stepped out of the changing room and had practically dragged her to the counter afterwards to pay for it.

Judging from Jake’s reaction, it was worth the obscene price tag.

She turns to see him watching her with dark eyes as his Adam’s apple bobs in his throat.

“I know it’s a bit much,” she says, feeling self-conscious under his unblinking gaze, “but Kylie pushed it at me and-“

“You look incredible.”

His voice is laced with awe and she blushes at his words.

“Thank you.”

They stare at each other until one of them – she’s not sure who – finally looks away, and Amy busies herself slathering on sunscreen.

“Do you want me to do your back?”

Jake’s hovering uncertainly beside her lounger. She nods and passes him the bottle.

It takes everything in her not to shiver as his hands rub at her back, their warmth stark in contrast to the cool cream. His fingers massage her shoulders, easing the tension that’s built there. It make her nerves feel like they’re on fire and she is acutely aware of every touch as his fingers brush over her skin. She can hear Jake breathing heavily behind her as his hands slowly move lower on her back. His touch is soft and gentle, and she can’t help but imagine his hands touching her in another scenario, one where he slowly drives her insane with pleasure and she is free to moan his name. She’s always had a thing for hands, particularly Jake’s with his long fingers and worn calluses, and they may have played a prominent role in her fantasies over the past few months. At first she’d tried to resist picturing Jake when she touched herself at night but he had always snuck in there, her brain betraying her in the final moments, until she had given in and brought herself to orgasm imagining his hands and his mouth and his cock time and time again.

His hands move in slow circles, feather light on her skin, and she has to bite her lip to keep herself from moaning at the sensation that is overwhelming her as he massages the lotion into her skin and touches her in a way she’s only imagined before now.

By the time he’s finished, her heart is racing and she swears he must be able to feel the heat radiating from her. He looks as tense as she does and he scratches the back of his neck the moment he steps away.

“Do you want me to do your back as well?”

The words escape her without thinking, most definitely not what she intended to say. What she needs now is the cool water of the ocean to calm her heart and stave off the wave of inappropriate thoughts swarming her brain, not even more contact with Jake. Her brain seems to have other ideas however.

She feels relief at the fact that he looks as uncomfortable as she feels but then he nods tentatively and tugs off his t-shirt. The sight of his bare chest makes Amy bite her lip as she drinks in the expanse of pale skin dusted with dark hair that trails down his stomach and disappears below the waistband of his shorts. Heat pools in her belly as he turns away from her and sits on his lounger, leaving her with the image of his cropped dark hair and freckled back.

She busies herself with the sunscreen, warming it in her hands, but then she’s left with no choice but to touch Jake. Her throat is dry as she puts her hands on his back and her stomach swoops as she feels the warmth of his skin. His skin is soft but she can feel the hard muscle beneath as she smooths the lotion over his broad shoulders.  Steadily she works a layer over his bare back. As her hands move lower, she can feel Jake’s breath getting heavier, the muscles in his back rippling underneath her hands as he shifts in his seat and leans into her touch. Then he lets out a deep groan as her hands rub the base of his spine. He stiffens.

“Done,” she says, her voice strangled and high-pitched as she pulls away.

Jake leaps up like she’s burned him and it isn’t until she notices his hands placed awkwardly in front of his crotch that she realises why. Thankfully Jake is staring at anything except her and she keeps her eyes fixed on the small scar on his left shoulder as a familiar ache builds inside of her. He’s breathing heavily and her own breath resembles more of a pant than anything else.

“I’m gonna go for a swim.”

His voice is deep and breathless, and it does nothing to quell the desire rising in her body.

“Good idea.”

Then he’s gone, practically jogging into the water and submerging himself underneath the waves, leaving Amy free to collapse onto her lounger.

“God, I am so screwed.”

“Seems to me like you need to _get_ screwed,” says a sharp voice to her right.

The two men in the neighbouring lounge chairs are watching her with matching smirks but one of them has a slightly more wicked edge to his; she guesses he was the one who spoke. He has dark hair, is far too pretty for his own good, and knows it judging from the carefully styled hair and short dark beard.

“You’ll have to excuse my boyfriend,” says the other of the two, a tall Filipino-looking guy with round glasses and a warmer smile. “He has a tendency to give his opinion even when it’s none of his business.”

“Did you not just see the free porn show those two put on?”

“Again, I apologise.” Amy blushes. “But he does have a point. Not that it’s any of my business, but why the two of you are not back in the hotel screwing like bunnies right now is beyond me.”

“It’s…complicated.”

They snort at that. “We know a thing or two about complicated.” The friendlier of the two guys holds out a hand. “I’m Oliver.”

“Amy. It’s nice to meet you. And I’m sorry about before. I didn’t realise anyone was watching or that it would get quite so…”

“Pornographic?”

“Connor!” Oliver throws a towel at his boyfriend who deftly catches it and smirks.

“I’m simply saying what I saw. Two people on a romantic getaway should not be that sexually frustrated.”

Amy glances over her shoulder and sees that Jake is now busy splashing about in the water with Alex and Luca. The last thing she needs is for him to overhear anything about sexual frustration. Though, judging from his reaction to her touching him, she’s not the only one feeling frustrated, which opens up a whole realm of questions that she doesn’t have any answers to.

“Oh it’s not a romantic getaway. Jake and I are here for my cousin’s wedding.”

Connor perks up at that. “The Santiago-Millstone wedding?”

“That’s the one. My cousin is the bride, unfortunately.”

“And, unfortunately, I’m the groom’s best man.”

“Your best friend’s with Asher?”

From the little time she’s spent with Asher over the years, she’s found him to be the classic douchebag frat boy wannabe who’s had a life of incredible privilege. At first glance, Connor doesn’t seem the type of guy to be best friends with a guy like that.

Oliver bursts out laughing while Connor looks like he might be sick.

“God no. We’re at law school together and best man was a choice between me and our drip of a friend, Wes. Asher said it’d be cool to have a gay best man so I refused until he agreed to pay for our flights, hotel and anything we spent while we’re here.”

“Honestly we’re mainly here to see if someone is really willing to commit to spending their life with Asher,” Oliver adds.

“I’ve been wondering the same thing about Alexa so clearly they’re a match made in heaven.”

She settles into idle conversation with Connor and Oliver. They share a wealth of embarrassing stories about Asher as well as stories from their own relationship, while Amy shares her own about Alexa and her life. Connor turns his attention to a hefty law textbook when she starts talking about her work as a detective and then disappears for a swim, but Oliver laughs at her stories and asks a dearth of questions.

“You seem pretty different,” she says during a lull in conversation and gestures to Connor who’s swimming laps in the ocean.

“Connor isn’t as bad as he comes across. I promise. He tends to be pretty blunt and he’s not the easiest person to like but he’s amazing when you get to know him. Lots of my friends couldn’t understand why I wanted to be with him after… A lot of shit happened and he hurt me. I could have walked away forever and found someone simpler and more like me. For a long time, I thought that was what I wanted. But Connor is everything to me. He’s sharp and egotistical and selfish but he’s also kind and loving and sensitive. He’s nothing like who I expected to end up with but I can’t imagine myself with anyone else now.”

When Jake had been undercover and Amy had been trying to decide what she was going to do after his confession, she had drawn up a list of everything she wanted in a boyfriend. Even now, more than a year later, she remembers prioritising things like stability, good time management and secure finances. The list had been practical and sensible, everything she wanted in a partner. And Teddy had fit the list perfectly, making her feel confident in her choice to ignore Jake’s feelings and stick with him. Now though she can see where she went wrong. Relationships aren’t about a list of sensible qualities. You can’t create a checklist and find someone who ticks all the boxes. Sometimes it’s about finding someone wholly unexpected and realising they are who you’ve been waiting for all along.

“I get it.” She’s not looking at Oliver anymore. Instead she’s watching Jake who’s splashing water at her nephews as they squeal with laughter. “You don’t even realise they’re the one until you’re already in too deep.”

“Exactly.” Oliver stands up and begins to gather up his and Connor’s belongings. “Asher persuaded Connor to try windsurfing which means I am being dragged along too.” He folds the towels up and waves to his boyfriend, who strolls out of the ocean with water dripping from his dark curls and an array of lustful looks from sunbathing women following his every step. “It was good to meet you, Amy. Hopefully we’ll see you at the bar before the hellish bachelor and bachelorette parties start tonight.”

“I’d managed to block that out.”

“I doubt Alexa and Asher would let any of us forget any part of this weekend’s festivities.”

He gives her a wave then wanders down the sand to join Connor before the two of them disappear off in the direction of the hotel.

Amy lies down on her lounger and pulls a paperback from her bag. Normally she devours her crime novels whenever she has a chance, and she’s been looking forward to reading the new NYPD Red for weeks. However, now she can’t seem to focus on the words on the page, her conversation with Oliver swimming in her head instead.

Jake isn’t who she ever expected to fall for. He’s nothing like the men she’s dated before and nothing like the man she’s imagined herself marrying. Her previous relationships have all failed though. Every man who’s met her checklist has ended up turning into another failed attempt at finding the elusive one. Jake, on the other hand, has always been there. He’s supported her, cared for her and believed in her. She gets butterflies when she’s around him and he’s the one person who can always make her smile. She can’t imagine her life without Jake. And that seems a lot more important for a successful relationship than any checklist.

Jake and her nephews have moved back onto the beach and are caught up in building a massive sandcastle. Miguel and Jake are carrying a large bucket of sand over to Anthony who’s digging a moat and the boys are clearly enamoured with Jake already, which isn’t all that difficult. He’s always had a natural affinity with children, unlike Amy who struggles to connect and ends up being labelled as the boring aunt. She knows he has a wealth of worries about becoming a father himself one day but it’s easy to see just how good he’ll be at it. She can see him with his own children playing on the beach, teaching them to swim, and wiping away tears when their sandcastle inevitably gets washed away. The image is startlingly clear to her – Jake wrapping a fluffy towel around children with dark curly hair and brown skin as they giggle and squirm in his arms – as is her own longing for it to be a reality.

And then it hits her like a bolt of lightning, a fact so self-evident that she can’t believe she didn’t realise it before – she is in love with Jake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Amy is in love with Jake, and is maybe starting to pick up on the clues that she's not alone in her mushy feelings. I've always felt Amy is more cautious in her feelings than Jake, but when I was writing this, her feelings turning into love, after seeing him in a more intimate setting and bonding with her family, felt natural. 
> 
> I'm loathe to estimate how many chapters are left in this but we're around the halfway mark. That's assuming Jake and Amy don't have their own ideas. Fun fact: that sunscreen scene was not in the plan for this chapter but that's where they ended up taking it. They were due some good old-fashioned sexual tension.
> 
> And, for those of you who have picked up on the crossover in this chapter, I applaud your taste in TV. For those who didn't, Connor and Oliver are characters from ABC's How to Get Away with Murder, as is Asher. From the first chapter, I intended Asher to be Asher Millstone, and who else would he choose to be his best man but Connor Walsh?


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Those pesky little feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween!
> 
> As always, thank you for all the kudos and comments. Each one is like a hug from Jake.

The revelation that her feelings for Jake are deeper than she ever realised sends Amy into a stunned silence, even as her brothers and nephews play around her. Thankfully Jake is still keeping his distance, wrapped up in building the extravagant castle that’s dominating a good section of the beach front now, leaving her free to contemplate exactly what this all means.

She loves Jake.

 _Love._ It’s an absurdly huge and complex concept, and that’s not even taking into account the fact that it’s something she feels for her partner slash friend who used to like her before he moved on to somebody else. 

Teddy had told her he loved her two months before their break-up. It had been out of the blue, at least for her, and she had felt obligated to say it back because that was what you were supposed to do. The words had felt heavy and strange on her tongue, and she had known, deep down, that they weren’t true. That wasn’t how love was meant to feel.

The thing is though that _this_ isn’t how she thought love would feel either. She had always thought love was supposed to be this all-consuming transformative thing that shifted your entire world. But it’s not.

Jake is still Jake. She still hates the way he can’t tidy up after himself as well as his terrible sense of humour. He dresses like a teenager, his voice is too loud, and his immaturity and irresponsibility make her cringe while his chaotic finances make her want to cry. He’s irritating, selfish and obnoxious at times, and he’s nothing like the type of man she imagined herself falling for. Love doesn’t eradicate all of that and cast some magic spell over the two of them to make everything perfect.

Instead, loving him feels more like finally putting a name to something that she’s known all along. Whenever something happens, Jake is always the first person she wants to tell. He’s the person she looks to for advice and for encouragement when things get tough, and it’s him that she can always count on when she doubts herself and is in need of someone to pick her back up again.  Jake makes her laugh on even the worst of days, and he somehow always knows exactly what she needs before she does herself – whether it’s an evidence bag, a helping hand on a case, or just a cup of coffee. He’s more than a partner and a friend, and, when she thinks about it, he’s been more than that for a long time.

She sits with that thought for a while, pretending to doze behind her sunglasses when Dan tries to get her to join him on a banana boat. She has been so anxious in the lead up to this vacation, and she lies and waits for those feelings to increase as her brain processes the reality of being in love with Jake. Nothing happens though. All she feels is calm as if everything has fallen into place now she’s realised what her subconscious has already known for a long time.

However, there is the small problem of her partner’s current feelings, or lack thereof, towards her. Jake is as terrible at dealing with emotions as she is, and she feels utterly lost as to how he feels towards her. The awkward episode with sunscreen aside, his behaviour over the past few months suggests he’s moved on. She saw him with Sophia and how happy he was. If Amy could have dreamt up an ideal woman for Jake, it would have been her. Smart, kind, beautiful – she was practically perfect. And after the break-up, Jake had been more cut up than she had ever seen him. Whatever he had felt for Amy paled in comparison to the feelings he’d had for Sophia.

Objectively, she knows that the evidence points to him only viewing as her as a friend and partner, nothing more. Therefore, logically, the best course of action is for her to keep quiet rather than risk an important friendship in the name of selfishly sharing her own feelings.

Yet she can’t help but doubt whether that really is the best route to take. She saw the way he reacted to her touching him earlier, and she knows she didn’t imagine it affecting him as much as it did her.

He’s come on a romantic holiday with her, he’s charming her family, and he’s making plans for back in New York as if they’re a real couple. Then there’s the unfinished conversation from the night before. The way he had talked about her decision to choose Teddy made it sound like something that was still weighing on his mind after all these months. Why would he still be thinking about it if it meant nothing to him, if her feelings meant nothing to him?

It is this question she is considering as Jake finally wanders over to her with Miguel riding on his back and Anthony hanging off his leg.

“You fancy lunch? Apparently some people around here are hungry.”

The boys cheer loudly as Jake’s stomach rumbles, and Amy grins.

“Food sounds good.”

The smile he gives her makes her heart skip a beat and, as he lowers her nephews back down onto the sand, a thought occurs to her. If this was a case then she would have to decide that she doesn’t have enough evidence to draw a clear conclusion yet. The confessions, Teddy, Sophia – it’s all old and outdated data. Before she can come up with a plan on how to deal with her feelings, she needs to know how Jake feels about her now, not how he felt nine months ago.

Standing up from the lounger, she takes her time stretching, rolling her aching neck and then reaching down to her toes. As she sends a silent prayer of thanks for all the times Kylie dragged her to yoga, Jake’s eyes trail over her body, lingering longer than any platonic gaze should, and she feels a rush of satisfaction.

Normally she’s tentative around guys she likes. With Teddy, it had been easy to slip into discussions about work and police code jokes, always keeping the flirting on a level where she felt confident. Whereas, when she had first met Mark, all dark eyes and bewitching smile, she had been flustered and shy as he flirted with her, nothing like the confident Amy who would only appear at work or after five drinks. But this is Jake, someone who knows her inside and out. They’re on a tropical beach and their lie gives her the perfect cover for the kind of flirting that she typically leaves to Kylie.

So she pulls on her dress, tosses Jake his towel and hurries to join him. Her body easily rests against his and she slides her arm around his waist, relishing the warmth of his skin and the solid feeling of his body against hers. He stumbles for a moment before wrapping an arm around her shoulders, and she feels a shiver race down her spine at his touch. They look like any other couple enjoying the beach. And, as they begin to follow her brothers towards the hotel, his fingers lightly trace meaningless patterns on her skin as if this level of intimacy is nothing new.

“Your nephews are brilliant.”

“I’m not sure that’s the word Raff would use but sure.”

“Do you think our castle will be gone after lunch?”

He glances back over his shoulder at the towering sandcastles he’s spent the past hour and a half making and she laughs. Only Jake would be worried about the longevity of a pile of sand.

“I’m sure it’ll still be there,” she says and he grins.

The veranda has been redressed for lunch with linen tablecloths and china plates. For a moment, Amy feels woefully underdressed in her strappy sundress until she spots Marco sprawled out at a table by the edge of the balcony, all shaggy hair and no shirt. There’s a girl with long blonde hair making eyes at him from a neighbouring table, and Amy can tell from here that her brother is doing his best to resist abandoning lunch in favour of her company.

“Marco, stop mentally undressing women and act like a gentleman.”

Alex, apparently lacking any social awareness, doesn’t pick up on the disapproving looks from the neighbouring tables as he shoves Marco’s feet off one of the chairs after hitting him across the back of the head.

“You’re here!”

Marco jumps out of the chair and approaches Amy with the same smile he used to use when he was nine and wanted her to drive him to the bodega two blocks over to buy sweets. The youngest of her brothers, he’s the one she’s always felt most protective of and she loves him dearly, even if he does drive her insane at times.

“Hi, Marco.”

She reaches out for a hug except he pushes right past her and instead hugs Jake who looks startled at the sudden embrace.

“A Nets fan. She finally brings home someone good.”

Jake laughs at that and pats Marco’s back while Amy looks on with thinly veiled disgust. When Marco finally detaches, mumbling something about his prayers being answered, he turns to her and grins, as if noticing her presence for the first time.

“Hey, sis.”

“No.” She pushes his arm away when he moves in for a hug. “Don’t try and hug me. I haven’t seen you in three months and you go and hug my boyfriend first?”

“Your boyfriend is cooler than you.”

There’s another bark of laughter from Jake, and Amy takes pleasure in Marco’s yelp of pain when she kicks his calf.

“Where’s dad? I thought he was joining us.”

“Mom dragged him off to some art gallery on the other side of the island. He left me in charge.” The statement is met with a collection of disapproving looks and Marco sighs. “One day you’re going to believe me.”

They make a big palaver out of dragging tables closer so all of them can squish together and eat, and Amy finds her sandwiched between Jake and Edgar, the latter of whom is already dissecting the menu with enthusiasm.

It only takes a few seconds for her brothers to launch into the embarrassing story of the time she decided to run away from home because her mom wouldn’t make her favourite sandwich. She had sat at the end of the block petting the neighbourhood cat for half an hour until Rudi was sent to bring her back along with her backpack full of potato chips and mystery novels. Jake eats the story up, laughing in all the right places and asking numerous questions, much to the delight of her siblings.

The rhythm between her partner and family is already so easy and comfortable, and warmth blossoms in her chest as she watches all of them talking over each other and laughing together. As she shifts in her chair, her knee brushes against Jake’s and he turns to her with a smile. His leg is warm and the hair tickles her skin but she leans into it, allowing her leg to rest alongside his. The smile on his face lingers for a moment and then he turns his attention back to Luca who’s gesturing wildly. His leg stays where it is however, their knees pressing together under the table.

They stay like that throughout lunch. Sometimes his leg will bounce against hers when he’s laughing too hard but otherwise it stays pressed to hers, warm and solid against her own, and every so often he ducks his head and shoots her a smile that makes her knees weak.

Either Jake is excellent at pretending to have feelings for her or she isn’t as alone in all of this as she first thought.

It’s been a long time since Amy can last remember feeling this content. Her family are all together and have easily slipped back into their usual routines, one of her closest friends is at her side and being embraced by the people she loves, and she’s finally put a name to the confusing mess of feelings she’s been carrying around for months.

So, of course, that is the moment a literal and metaphorical shadow falls over her.

“There’s my favourite group of people.”

It’s amazing how one voice can affect Amy so much, and her stomach rolls as Alexa approaches the table and blocks out the sun that had been, prior to that moment, shining on her.

Twisting around, the sight of Alexa’s toothy grin greets her and she grits her teeth. Unlike the rest of them who have taken a relaxed approach to the beach day, her cousin is dressed in a tight white dress that doesn’t look like it’s designed to be anywhere near sand or saltwater. Diamonds glint in her ears and Amy isn’t sure how her perfectly applied make-up isn’t simply melting off her face in this heat.

“I am sorry I haven’t had time to catch up with all of you. It’s been so hectic getting ready for Saturday. Who knew a wedding was this much work?” She laughs but no one else joins in. “It is so good to see all of you.”

Her eyes roam over the table and she delivers the same fake smile to each of them in turn until she finally notices Jake. Her gaze zeroes in on him and Amy can practically see her analysing every aspect of him but it barely fazes Jake who cocks an eyebrow at her before holding out his hand.

“Congrats on the wedding.”

“Aw aren’t you the sweetest? Thank you. So you must be Amy’s boyfriend. We have all been dying to meet you.”

“Dying to snoop more like,” Alex stage whispers.

“That’s me, Amy’s boyfriend. My friends just call me Jake though.”

Alexa breaks out her most affected laugh at that, braying like a horse, and Amy winces. Her and Jake share matching looks of despair.

“You are so funny. I never expected Amy to end up with a funny guy. How did you two meet?”

Amy’s not sure anyone has ever sounded more disbelieving.

Jake’s voice is colder now. “We’ve worked together for years.”

 “And what, one day you just looked at Amy and realised she was the one?”

Scratch that, _now_ no one has ever sounded more disbelieving.

“No, it was more like one day I looked at her and realised she had become the person I couldn’t live my life without.” The chorus of cooing noises from her siblings rings out around her but Amy can’t help but stare at Jake. That wasn’t in any script they prepared. This is him talking. “When she asked me out, I didn’t even have to think about it. Of course I wanted to be with her. She’s incredible. I’m just thankful she’s chosen to be with me.”

Then his arm is around her shoulders and suddenly everything is Jake as he kisses her forehead while he holds her.  As she turns her head to rest it against him, the familiar scent of his body wash and deodorant washes over her and she can’t help but breathe it in. And she finds herself desperately hoping that he means what he said, that it isn’t just another part of this whole charade. He sounds so sincere and she has to believe that even Jake, the man who loves pretending and assuming different identities, couldn’t fake that.

When she pulls away, Alexa’s nose is wrinkled like she’s smelt something unpleasant. Amy wants to be pleased at her cousin’s dissatisfaction but it doesn’t seem to matter, not when she turns to look at Jake. The panic on his face is obvious but there’s something else there, something that makes her stomach swoop and causes his eyes to soften as she smiles at him.

“Hey, do you want to go and-“ he says quietly but then Alexa’s hand is gripping her arm and pulling her up out of her chair before he can finish speaking.

“Anyway, the reason that I came down here is that I have a treat for you all.” Her fingers pinch at Amy’s skin as she holds her. It’s far more likely this treat is another torturous part of the Alexa Santiago circus. “Asher has booked for all you guys and the kids to spend this afternoon surfing. Meanwhile us ladies,” another pinch, “will be relaxing in the spa and being pampered before my bachelorette party.”

If there’s one thing Amy doesn’t want to do, it’s spend the next few hours holed up with Alexa and her band of followers listening to them talk about flowers and dresses. But Alexa starts shooing everyone away from the table and towards reception, ignoring their protests and Edgar’s attempts to cling to his desert.

Jake drops back as the group heads inside and signals for Amy to do the same.

“About what I said back there…”

“It’s fine. Alexa put you on the spot and you had to say something.”

“No, that’s not it.” He’s quiet and she watches as he swallows heavily and rubs the back of his neck. Butterflies form in her stomach. “I didn’t say those things for Alexa’s benefit.”

The butterflies intensify and her mouth becomes dry.

“What do you mean?”

They stop in the middle of the lobby and Jake turns to face her. And suddenly she has that same feeling she did more than a year ago when they’d stood outside the precinct and Jake had been more open and honest with her than she could ever remember him being. He’s looking at her in that same way, making her heart stop and her stomach churn with nerves. Then he places his hands on her waist and steps forward until all her senses are overwhelmed by him. His dark brown eyes pierce into hers and her breath hitches as she waits for him to speak, hope fluttering in her chest.

“Lovebirds, stop eye-sexing each other and get over here.”

Luca’s shout shatters the moment and Amy feels herself crash back into reality as Jake steps away from her, a dazed look on his face. She opens her mouth to speak, to say anything, but then Naomi is linking arms with her and tugging her towards all the other women who are traipsing into the spa, while her brothers are shoving Jake and laughing loudly.

“I remember when Dan and I were like that, couldn’t bear to be apart for even a minute. Don’t worry, Amy, you’ll have plenty of time together later.”

Amy lets herself be pulled along, her brain frantically processing what just happened, and she tries to resist the temptation to look back. But as she’s pulled through the spa doors, she risks a glance over shoulder and sees Jake still stood in the same spot, looking just as stunned as she feels.

Then the door closes and she’s left with the prospect of a few hours with nothing to think about but whether Jake Peralta loves her too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for leaving it there. The next chapter involves alcohol and dancing if that's any consolation.
> 
> Also, for anyone who's interested, we're running a holiday gift exchange for B99 this year to celebrate all the wonderful people in this fandom. If you're interested in writing a fic, drawing fanart, making a fanvid or gifset, or anything else that celebrates B99, then just sign up by Saturday 7th November. All the details and the sign-up link can be found here: http://gabby-dawson.tumblr.com/post/130956866411/brooklyn-nine-nine-holiday-gift-exchange


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Party time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy smokes! The response to the last chapter genuinely blew me away. Thank you so so so much if you read it, left kudos, or wrote a comment. Life was super busy so I couldn't reply to all them but please know I appreciated every kind word all of you wrote. Thank you.

Every attempt Amy makes to leave the spa early is faulted by another treatment being announced or an inane conversation about whether freesias should be removed from the ceremony’s flowers or if they should have had ordered Evian instead of Perrier for the reception, and Amy settles for mumbling half-hearted responses while her brain whirs through every possible thing Jake could have been about to say back in the foyer.

The romantic inside her, the part of her that is irrational and that she normally squashes down because it has no place in her work and daily life, imagines declarations, the kind she has secretly dreamt of hearing since the moment Teddy spilled her private feelings in a burst of anger. But the pessimist, the side of her that has been thriving since Jake fell in love with Sophia and left her romantic delusions in the dust, is equally active, generating visions of Jake that talk about pity and sorrow and of words said out of friendship rather than love.

The whole situation leaves her feeling stressed and uncomfortable, even as she is massaged and pampered by silent women in crisp white uniforms. And, when she is finally freed with the promise to meet back down in the foyer in thirty minutes for the start of the bachelorette party, she races back to her hotel room, overwhelmed by the need to talk to Jake and know how he feels.

However, when she opens the door, she curses under her breath as finds Jake’s clothes from earlier tossed on the floor and no sign of her partner aside from the scent of his aftershave lingering in the air.

The room feels oddly empty without him as she gathers up his clothes, folding them neatly on the chair, and rifles through the wardrobe in search of something appropriate for tonight. She’s used to living alone and she enjoys her own space, a simple but luxurious privilege after years of her brothers and roommates. Yet sharing a room with Jake feels natural and comfortable.

Maybe it’s because they’ve worked together for so long and their job is one where intimacy is necessary for a truly successful partnership. Not only have they seen each other at their worst, exhausted and drained when they’re working a particularly gruelling case, but they’re also intimately acquainted with each other’s personal lives. She’s carried a drunken Jake home and fallen asleep on his sofa countless times, and she always keeps bottles of his favourite beer in her fridge even though she hates the stuff. When they work awful cases, he brings Chinese food over to her place and distracts her with reruns of The Mentalist until she falls asleep next to him. And, when his mom was in hospital, she sat with him and Gina in the hospital waiting room all night even though she had never met the woman.

Their lives are so heavily intertwined that waking up next to him and seeing his toothbrush next to hers on the counter doesn’t feel strange at all. And his constant presence over the past two days means she feels startlingly out of sorts now that he’s not near her.

It isn’t until she’s rifling through her holdall for the pair of earrings she remembers tossing in there when she was leaving her apartment that she notices the note. It’s neatly folded and resting on the nightstand, her name scrawled in Jake’s familiar messy handwriting on the front.

It reads, ‘Guess you’re still stuck at the spa. Your brothers are dragging me down to the bar to start drinking. Hopefully we’ll run into each other tonight. I missed you this afternoon.’

The last part is a few lines down like it’s been added in at the last minute and she smiles at the thought of Jake dithering over whether to write it or not.

She knows Asher has some ridiculous bar crawl planned that’ll no doubt end with Jake and her brothers passed out on a beach somewhere, but she might be lucky and catch them before they leave the overpriced bar downstairs. So she quickly shimmies into her sparkly gold dress- another Kylie special – and forces herself to breathe as she sweeps her hair to the side and pins it in place.  But the breathing does nothing to calm the butterflies that have formed in her stomach as she carefully applies her make-up, hands trembling slightly at the possibility of what will happen when she next sees Jake.

It’s been a long time since she felt this nervous over something not to do with work, and she wishes there was someone she could call to talk to about it. Kylie, while enthusiastic, is not the best at romantic advice and she can practically hear her best friend advising her to jump Jake the moment she sees him – a tempting but impractical suggestion. Meanwhile Rosa would probably advise something similar or question why Amy was bothering her in the first place, while Gina would pretend not to know who was calling. And everyone else is under the impression that her and Jake are already together, and therefore are totally incapable of giving her the advice she needs.

No, she’s on her own with this one, and is in terrifying, unchartered waters.

Nerves swarming, she smoothes her dress down, picks up her clutch and walks out of the room, trying to recall her therapist’s calming techniques as she rides the elevator down to the lobby. By the time she’s counted back from ten three times and thought of her neatly ordered closet, the doors have opened to reveal a number of Alexa’s bridesmaids milling around the lobby, all in similar lacy dresses.

“Thank god you’re here,” Naomi says, hugging her tightly the moment she steps off the elevator. “I cannot do a bachelorette party sober without some sane company.”

“You could have bailed out. That baby bump is a built in excuse.”

“As if Alexa would have let me do that,” she says and gestures to the bride who’s wearing a neon pink ‘Bride-to-be’ sash and giggling with one of her bridesmaids by a waiting limo.

“Ladies, are we ready?” she calls, swaying on the spot as she waves frantically, and her friends shriek loudly while Naomi and Amy share matching looks of despair.

“I just need to find someone,” Amy says.

“You can talk to your boyfriend later. You are not leaving me alone with these women. Ali only got out of tonight because Miguel threw up everywhere while they were out surfing.”

“I’m not bailing. I just need to…”

Her words are interrupted by the doors to the bar opening and a familiar group of guys stumbling out, their shouts echoing through the spacious lobby. Jake is amongst them, laughing loudly with Dan and Oliver. But, when he spots her, his expression softens and he grins at her.

“Amy!” he calls, charging over to her. She’s been around Jake and alcohol enough to know he’s about two beers in and just starting to feel the effects. “Hi!”

“Someone’s started drinking already.”

“Yeah, your brothers really like their alcohol.”

“That they do.”

His eyes are still soft and he’s looking at her in that way that makes her feel like she’s the only person that matters to him. She wants to say something, anything, about everything that’s been building between them but suddenly her nerves feel crippling and she finds herself unable to speak. What if she’s wrong? What if she’s misread all of this and saying something ends up ruining the most important relationship in her life?

“How much do they drink?” he whispers, interrupting her internal debate. Then he leans closer to her and the smell of his aftershave causes her stomach to swoop.

“They drink a lot, relentlessly in fact. There are so many stories I could tell you about the humiliation they have caused while under the influence. I would keep your wits about you.”

Jake blanches at that before shoving his hands into his pocket and pulling out his phone and wallet.

“I’m putting these in your safety.” He shoves them at her and smiles. “The last thing I need is for any embarrassing photos to get back to Gina so she can humiliate me even further.”

“That’s probably sensible. When they took Rudi’s boyfriend, Michael, out for the first time, they ended up charging a $300 cab ride to  Philadelphia to his credit card. The cab wasn’t even for a person. They sent his watch to Philly.”

“Oh my god.”

“Yeah. They found it hilarious because they’re idiots.”

As if to illustrate her point, her brothers charge towards them, shouting and chanting, before scooping Jake up.

“Say goodbye to your boyfriend.”

“We promise to bring him back in one piece.”

“Maybe.”

Jake shoots her a helpless look as he is carried away towards a waiting cab and she can’t help but laugh at the panic in his eyes. She knows her brothers won’t do anything truly terrible to him and it means the world to her that they’ve embraced him so quickly. All she needs to do now is gather the courage to find out what Jake is really feeling, and to learn if this is all simply a big misunderstanding or if he really does have feelings for her again. 

* * *

 

By the time they’ve made it through dinner at a restaurant where a meal costs Amy’s entire groceries budget for the month, and gained access to the type of club she usually avoids, Amy is five drinks in and at her most confident as she whirls around the dance floor with Naomi. The terribly high heels she’s wearing are pinching her feet but she can’t bring herself to care, giggling and dancing to whatever catchy pop song is playing.

“I’m going to go get a water,” Naomi shouts in her ear as the song changes to something that sounds vaguely like Taylor Swift, and Amy nods before resuming her dancing solo this time.

The alcohol is running through her veins, the beat of the music is reverberating through her whole body, and she feels like she’s buzzing as she spins, stumbling slightly on her heels. Then a hand shoots out to steady her and she looks up as the hot, sweaty crowd presses in to see Jake standing beside her.

“What are you doing here?” she shouts and he frowns, unable to hear her over the music, so she leans in, her body pressing against his. “What are you doing here?”

He shifts slightly and points to the other side of the room. Over the top of people’s heads, she can just make out Asher and his friends as well as some of her brothers at the bar. Alexa is with them, grinding against her fiancé in a way that her mother would not approve of.

“You look like you’re having a good time.”

His breath is hot against her ear and it startles her, sending a wave of longing through her whole body. His hands come to rest on her hips, steadying her on the dance floor, and they begin to sway to the music, more focused on each other than the song that is playing.

“I don’t remember the last time I danced,” she tells him, her voice loud even as she presses against him to talk in his ear.

His body is warm and solid against hers and she feels a familiar ache between her thighs as his fingers grip her hips, hard and strong through the thin material of her dress.

“When you last went out with Kylie?”

She shakes her head. Now they’re in their thirties, they’ve started frequenting bars rather than clubs, and she leaves the dancing to Kylie.

“No.” She thinks for a moment, her hands absent-mindedly trailing a path over his chest and shoulders. “It was probably at that dance competition before you went undercover.”

Jake’s eyes meet hers and she knows he’s remembering the same things that she is – the dancing and laughing, Teddy,  words that couldn’t be taken back, words that changed everything about their relationship. It’s the moment that shifted the fundamental things that make their partnership what it is, and it’s the moment that set them on the path to where they are now, balancing on a precipice that could change their whole relationship again.

Jake doesn’t say anything. Instead he holds her tighter and simply looks at her. They move slowly to the music, not aware of anything or anyone else around them. Her heart feels like it is going to burst out of her chest as they dance together. Then Jake slides a hand around to her back, and she feels his breath hitch as his hand meets the smooth expanse of bare skin where her dress dips low. He doesn’t move his hand though, letting the warmth of it burn her skin and make her whole body tense.

Every nerve ending seems to be on fire when she meets his gaze and takes in his dark eyes. The warm buzz of alcohol envelopes her and a burst of confidence rushes through her before she takes a deep breath and reaches a hand up to trace along Jake’s jaw. The stubble scratches her skin as her touch moves up Jake’s face, and then her fingers meet the soft, dark curls that she’s imagined touching for so long. She tangles her fingers in his hair and relishes the feel of the short strands against her skin.

Then she realises she’s holding her breath, waiting, and Jake is too.

She doesn’t know who moves first, whether he bends down or she reaches up, but one moment she’s staring at him, drinking in the face that is more familiar to her than almost anyone else’s, and the next his lips are on hers.

His lips are soft and warm against her own as they kiss. It’s tentative at first, as if they’re each waiting for the other to pull away, but then Jake is sighing against her mouth and kissing her firmly. Electricity darts over Amy’s skin as she kisses him back, eagerness making her tug him towards her as his fingers clutch at her bare back.  It’s a desperate kiss, one full of longing and hunger, and Jake draws a small whimper from Amy’s throat as he bites her bottom lip before deepening the kiss. Her fingers fist in his hair, gripping the strands hard enough to hurt him if he wasn’t so focused on making her whole body feel like it’s on fire, and she groans in dissatisfaction when he finally pulls away and presses his forehead against her own.

Even in the low light of the club, she can see that Jake’s face is flushed and he’s panting slightly. She knows that everything she can see on his face is showing on her own as well, and he grins at her in a way she hasn’t seen before. This isn’t his wide, enthusiastic grin nor his cocky, smug one. Instead it’s small and almost disbelieving, as if he’s in awe at what's just happened. His eyes sparkle as he grins at her and she can’t help but smile back so widely that her cheeks ache.

“Amy…” he starts.

And then, because the universe hates her, from nowhere, Edgar leaps onto Jake’s back, sending the two of them stumbling sideways and crashing into a nearby group of women. They apologise profusely and Jake forces her brother off him, but the moment is shattered.

“Dude, it’s time for Asher’s humiliation.”

“We’re kind of in the middle of something.”

Jake's tone is sharp, and Amy swears that if this wasn't her brother talking, then Jake would tell him to fuck off. She's rather tempted to.

“You can make out with my sister any time. This is more important.”

There’s a cheer from somewhere towards the back of the club and Edgar yelps because clearly they’re missing whatever horrific thing Connor has planned for Asher.

“It’s fine,” Amy says. “Go and embarrass the groom. I’ll wait over there.”

She gestures towards the booths off to the side of the dance floor.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Go. I’ll wait.”

At her words, he grins before kissing her soft and quick like it’s already a habit.

“I’ll be right back. I promise.”

Edgar drags him into the crowd and they disappear through the sea of drunken dancers around them.

Amy practically drifts over to the booth and slides into the seat, a sappy smile plastered to her face. Tracing her lips, she remembers the feel of Jake’s lips on hers and the sheer intensity of their kiss. She’s had her fair share of relationships over the years but no one has ever made her feel like that from just one kiss. It feels like she could simply float away as her whole body thrums with energy and want. The smile won’t leave her face and she eyes the crowd hoping to see Jake walking back to her so she can kiss him again.

A buzzing sound from her clutch draws her senses away from the dance floor and thoughts of making out with Jake and back into the booth. She fumbles for her phone that’s lighting up the inside of her small bag. However, it’s not her phone that buzzed. Instead it’s Jake’s, and she pulls it out to set it on the table, idly checking the screen as she does so.

Then she stops.

A new message is displayed on the lock screen.

It’s from Sophia.

_You were right. I miss you. Call me x_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry. The text from Sophia was one of the first things I came up with when I thought of this story. Later on I dithered over whether the angst was necessary or not but every romantic comedy has that moment where it goes wrong - Bridget believing the worst of Mark, Harry backing away from Sally, Andie finding out about the bet - because what fun is the happily ever after if you don't have to work for it? It felt like a key part of the romcom trope, and also a little angst is fun to write.
> 
> Chapter-wise, we've got two or three more to go with a possible epilogue but I'm not set on that yet.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M ALIVE!
> 
> I am so sorry. I had no intention of going a whole month without updating. Unfortunately I literally haven't had a free weekend for the past month because work has been so busy. The only fandom stuff I've had time for has been Emma/Killian and Star Wars. However, today is the first day of the Christmas holidays so my present to all of you is a new chapter - finally! 
> 
> A quick recap on the last chapter - Jake and Amy finally kissed but Edgar interrupted their moment and then Amy found a text from Sophia on Jake's phone.

Amy isn’t sure how she manages to get out of the club without anyone noticing her but she does, sneaking up the crowded staircase and out onto the muggy street with no one following her or calling out to her.

Anguilla is dark and quiet, a stark comparison to Brooklyn at this time of night, but there’s the occasional cab rolling past and a bouncer is kind enough to flag one down for her. She thinks she thanks him as she climbs in but the words feel jumbled and heavy, and she barely manages to tell the driver the name of her hotel before the anxiety encroaches in and she begins to hyperventilate.

Clearly used to drunk women having breakdowns in the back of his cab, he barely glances at her in the mirror as she gasps for air and rolls down the windows to try and find some form of relief. Her chest feels tight and she can’t seem to get her breathing right, even as she counts in her head and tries to breathe deeply. Tense, she rocks in her seat and stares at the worn back of the passenger seat, forcing herself to focus on the loose thread and mismatched pattern while she fights to force air into her lungs.

“Hey lady.”

It’s hard but she makes herself tear her gaze away from the seat and over to the driver who’s holding a paper bag out to her, his eyes still firmly fixed on the road.

“Thanks,” she pants out, taking it and breathing into it.

Slowly her shallow, quick breathing begins to slow and steady, and the world around her starts to come back into focus as she breathes.

Her clutch feels heavy against her lap and a part of her wants to pull out Jake’s phone and look at it again, make sure that she really did read what she thought. But it’ll only start another anxiety attack and she knows exactly what she read. 

Jake hasn’t mentioned Sophia since the aftermath of their break-up.  Amy had had a front row seat to both their relationship and the shell of a man that Sophia had left behind when she had walked away. In all the years she had worked with Jake, she had never seen him as broken as he was after Sophia left. The way he constantly checked his phone, brushed off Gina’s offers to set him up with her friends, and was wholly lacking in his usual enthusiasm and humour had told her everything his words didn’t. He had loved her, truly loved her, and had been devastated by their relationship ending.

That was four months ago. Amy thought he was moving on and was back to his old self.  She thought he was finally ready for a relationship again.

Her cheeks flush with embarrassment as she remembers her nerves and excitement from only a few minutes ago when she had naively thought he was reciprocating her feelings and that the kiss signalled something, the mark of a new beginning. She had been so excited but the text had been like a bucket of cold water being thrown over her, sending her hurtling back to reality.

Jake doesn’t love her.

Every time she was over-analysing his behaviour and wondering if all the looks and touches were a sign that he too wanted more than friendship, he was thinking about Sophia and trying to work out how to get her back. He’d simply been showing her friendship and kindness, helping save her from embarrassment, and she had misread it all.

A sob catches in her throat as she replays their kiss, the whole situation now distorted and uncertain. She had thought it meant as much to Jake as it did to her, but now she has no idea what to think. Had he merely kissed her to avoid hurting her feelings if he pushed her away? Had he thought that another chance with Sophia was hopeless so he had turned to his alternative option? Was there an awkward apology coming her way in the morning when he sobered up and discovered the text?

Embarrassment clings to her as the cab comes to a stop outside the hotel. Shoving a handful of notes at the driver, she stumbles out and hurries to her room, keeping her gaze firmly fixed on the ground in case she’s spotted by a stray family member. The last thing she needs right now is a conversation with a distant aunt who wants to catch up on the mess that is her life.

By the time she reaches her – their – room, tears are burning in her eyes and she can feel the anxiety rising again. Jake’s clothes are still folded on the chair just as she left them hours ago, and she can see the note that had caused hope to spark in her chest resting on the nightstand. Another wave of embarrassment washes over her but she forces herself to take a deep breath and hurriedly shrug out of her sparkly dress, kicking it to the corner of the room and out of sight. She pulls on her comfiest pyjamas and forces herself through the motions of preparing for bed, all the while avoiding looking at Jake’s things littered around the room or thinking about what he might be doing right now.

Then she climbs into bed, pulls the sheet over her head, and thinks about nothing but counting her breaths until she falls asleep.

Her sleep is restless and it feels like only a moment since she closed her eyes when she opens them again. There’s a shaft of light shining through the room and it takes a moment for her brain to wake up enough to register that the door to the hotel room is now open. Through bleary eyes, she makes out the familiar figure of Jake hovering in the doorway. Then he shuts the door and the room tumbles back into darkness.

Her heart thumps in her chest so loudly that she’s sure Jake must be able to hear it from across the room. Part of her wants to turn on the light and face the truth but she finds herself frozen instead. Then Jake starts to move towards her and she slams her eyes closed.

“Amy?”

His voice is soft and quiet and she can picture him looking down at her with the type of soft expression that usually makes her knees weak. However she forces herself to breathe slowly and deeply when he whispers her name again. It’s hardly her proudest moment, feigning sleep instead of being brave and facing the reality of this messy situation, but she continues to lie still until she hears Jake’s footsteps retreat.

There’s the sound of him fiddling with something and she opens one eye to see another bright light filling the room – his phone. His breath hitches and her stomach sinks at the realisation that he must be reading Sophia’s message. The urge to say something, anything, overwhelms her again but then Jake is turning to look at her once more and she closes her eyes before he can notice her watching.

She listens carefully as he shuffles on the spot before walking away from her, his footsteps getting quieter and quieter until she hears the sliding door to the balcony opening. The last thing she hears is his voice.

“Hey, it’s me. I got your text.”

Then the door closes behind him and Amy is left alone in a bed that suddenly feels far too big with nothing but the silence of the hotel room and the pain in her chest.

Just like that, she breaks. Tears fall down her cheeks and soak into her pillow while she bites her lip to keep her sobs from echoing through the room, and she literally aches as she waits for Jake to come back inside.

She falls asleep with tears still wet on her face before he ever returns.

* * *

 

Amy wakes up slowly, her face smushed into the soft hotel pillow and the dry feeling lingering in her mouth that comes from a night of drinking. Her skin feels tight and she can see the remnants of last night’s make-up smeared across the pillow as her stomach churns. It feels like there’s a whole kaleidoscope of butterflies in her stomach and it takes her what seems like an eternity to remember why.

She turns to find the other side of the bed empty and untouched and she sits up suddenly, her eyes scanning the room as she considers the awful possibility that Jake has left in the middle of the night and is already halfway back to New York and Sophia. She couldn’t blame him if he had. An obligation to a desperate friend is hardly more important than reuniting with the person you love.

But then she sees him curled up in an uncomfortable looking armchair on the other side of the room, still clad in last night’s clothes. He’s far too tall for the chair and his legs are draped over one side while his head rests an angle that’ll no doubt leave him with a sore neck when he wakes up. Even after the mess that was last night, the sight of him with his rumpled clothes and messy hair makes her heart flip and a smile form on her face.

However, the sight of his phone resting on the table next to him wipes that smile away. Last night’s feelings of humiliation and embarrassment creep back in and she eyes Jake’s sleeping figure. If there is one thing Jake isn’t, it’s cruel. No matter how he feels about everything that’s happened between them, and whatever has happened between him and Sophia, he’ll do the utmost to spare her feelings today.

She imagines him talking to her in his soft tone of voice, doing everything he can to keep her from being hurt. He’ll offer to stay here and see the week out so they can keep up the pretence to her family even as he yearns to be back with Sophia, and his niceness about the whole thing will be positively cloying.

The idea makes her nauseous and a decision forms in her mind before she can truly think about it. Creeping out of bed, she tip toes over to the closet and silently swaps her pyjamas for fresh clothes. Two years of living with a roommate who worked nights taught her how to get ready with minimal noise so she brushes her teeth and wipes last night’s make-up off her face while Jake continues to sleep. Then she gathers up her stuff and pads out of the room, shoes in hand. With a soft click, the hotel door shuts behind her and then she’s running down the corridor focused solely on escaping as fast and far as she can.

“Going somewhere?”

The voice makes her skid to a halt just as reaches the elevator and she turns to see Edgar leaning against the wall with a smirk on his face.

“No,” she says, shifting awkwardly, her bare feet rubbing against the plush carpet.

“Because if I didn’t know better,” he says and he moves towards her, smirk still etched on his face, “I’d say you were trying to sneak out without being noticed, but that can’t be possible because my baby sister is in a committed relationship, one that just so happens to be making her least favourite cousin seethe with jealousy.”

Amy’s heart stutters and she stares at Edgar, trying to read her brother’s face, but that irritating smirk is even larger than ever and his eyes are sparkling.

“What do you know?” she whispers, a hint of panic coating her words.

“I don’t know anything.” He grins. “Is there something to know?”

She eyes him carefully before shaking her head. “I’m not in the mood, Edgar.” Then she pulls on her sandals and hits the button for the elevator.

She hears rather than sees Edgar move towards her and he bumps his shoulder against hers. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

The lie sounds false even to her.

“I know I’m normally the screwed up mess of the family that you have to take care of but I can tell when something is wrong with you. Please talk to me, Worm.”

The use of her childhood nickname weakens her already wavering resolve and she sighs.

“Fine, but not here.”

Edgar follows her onto the elevator without any further questioning, and she’s never felt quite so thankful for  her brother as she does when he detours in the lobby to grab them bagels and coffee from the buffet, allowing her to steer clear of the members of their family who have gathered for a late breakfast, and follows her quietly down to a deserted section of the beach.

They settle down on the sand, spreading out beach towels underneath the shade of a palm tree, and share their breakfast quietly with only the noise of the ocean lapping against the shore to accompany them.

She’s halfway through her second bagel when Edgar finally asks the question she’s been dreading.

“So are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

The lie is on the tip of her tongue, that Jake and her have had a fight, but she can’t seem to get it out. It sticks in her mouth leaving her stuttering for a moment while Edgar raises an eyebrow at her.

“You can tell me anything, you know that, right? I know something’s not right.” This time she’s the one who raises an eyebrow. “I’m not as stupid as I look, sis. A couple of months ago you were complaining about how awful it was trying to find someone to date in New York and how unbearable Alexa was going to be once she was married. Now you’re at her wedding with the perfect boyfriend, one who just happens to be one of your closest friends. I’ve seen romantic comedies before.”

Amy snorts at the image of Edgar curled up on the sofa in front of The Wedding Date before sighing and flopping down onto the sand.

“Does anyone else know?” she asks, fear creeping in at the idea of her parents discovering her lie. They’d feel so betrayed; she couldn’t bear it if I found it.

“Thankfully our fellow siblings are nowhere near as smart as I am.” She swats his leg. “We come from a rather self-centred bunch. I doubt any of them have taken the time to question it. Plus Jake is so great that they all love him too much to want to question it.”

At that the smile falls from her face and she sees Edgar frown. He shifts to lie down next to her and wraps an arm around her, pulling her towards him until her head is resting on his shoulder just like they used to do when they were kids.

“So are you going to tell me the truth now?”

The story bursts out of her, words spilling on her mouth so easily that it’s a wonder she managed to keep up this pretence at all. She tells him about Teddy and the invitation and blurting out the lie to Alexa. She explains about the plan Jake and her came up with and how willing he had been to help her out.

That is where she intends to stop but the words keep coming as if they are relieved to finally be free. She rambles about the flirting and the smiling and the cuddling and the touching. Edgar occasionally groans or mumbles something about his “baby sister” under his breath but otherwise he’s quiet until she trails off when she gets to the events of last night.

“Then last night we…”

“Amy, I love you and I want to help you but I am still your brother and there are some things I do not need to know.”

“We kissed. That’s what I was going to say. We kissed.”

“So isn’t that a good thing? Why the angst spiral?”

The humiliation and hurt creep back in. Saying it aloud will make it real but Edgar is staring at her expectantly and she is left with no choice but to keep talking.

“Afterwards, when all you guys went to be bachelors or whatever, Jake got a text from his ex saying that she missed him and wanted him to call her.”

“Oh.”

“Exactly. I had his phone so I saw it before he did and I’ve been avoiding him ever since.”

“Why exactly?”

“Jake loved Sophia, his ex, so much. I’ve never seen him feel like that towards anyone before. He was head over heels and then she walked away and it devastated him. Any chance he has to get back with her, he’ll take it, and, when he does…”

The words die on her tongue.

“When he does, that’s the end of any hope for the two of you.”

“That’s the polite way of putting it. So I’m hiding. It’s a self-preservation thing.”

Watching carefully, she waits as Edgar weighs her words and processes the insanity that her life has become. The silence stretches on while discomfort itches at her. Then her brother rolls her eyes and throws his crumpled napkin at her.

“What was that for?”

“I love you but you’re an idiot.”

“How did you come to that conclusion?”

“I may not be a love expert due to my emotionally stunted friends but I know enough to know that Jake is crazy about you. Anyone who spends just a few minutes with the two of you can see it. He hasn’t taken his eyes off you the whole time you’ve been here.”

“He was just pretending. It was all part of the lie.”

“Amy, trust me, that man is in love with you. Mom’s already planning your wedding, for god’s sake.”

She brushes past the second part of his statement, determinedly not thinking about Jake in a yarmulke waiting for her at the top of the aisle, and shakes her head.

“That’s what I thought but that text proved otherwise.”

“Did it?”

“Yes. Sophia misses him and…”

“Does _he_ miss her?”

“They’ve been talking recently, he rang her last night, and he was in love with her.”

“ _Was_ in love with her. You’re a smart person but you’re making assumptions and running scared. All you know is that he’s talked to his ex who misses him. Us Santiagos aren’t cowards so there’s no way you’re hiding out on this beach for the rest of the day. You’re going to do the smart thing and go and talk to him to find out what he actually feels rather than just assuming you know.”

Amy wants to say something, anything, but instead she sits there slightly stunned. Her brother, the one who sleeps on a sofa and works odd jobs, is telling her she’s the one screwing up. The words sting but they niggle at her. She isn’t a coward and yet she’s running and hiding, too afraid to face Jake and whatever the consequences of last night will be.

She knows that Edgar has a point. If Kylie was in this situation, Amy would tell her to have hope. Yet she can’t bring herself to. She saw Jake with Sophia; she saw the way he moved on from his feelings for her and fell in love with the gorgeous, smart, kind lawyer. Even when Jake knew how she felt about him, he still chose Sophia. Why would anything have changed now?

However, Edgar’s words echo in her head. She isn’t a coward. She is a Santiago and Santiagos don’t run.

Her decision must show on her face because Edgar stands up and offers a hand before pulling her up from the sand. They don’t speak as they collect up their towels and trash nor as they slowly trudge back up the beach. Instead Amy allows herself to think about lingering touches and soft smiles and kisses that make her knees weak. She thinks about romantic confessions and hurt feelings and possible futures. She thinks about Jake and everything he is and could be to her.

The idea of him rejecting her is terrifying. But the idea of simply letting him slip away because she’s too scared to say anything at all is even worse.

So when they get back to the hotel, Amy kisses Edgar on the cheek before riding the elevator up to their floor. Her heart thumps in her chest as she walks down the corridor and it’s a fight to keep her hands from shaking as she retrieves the key card from her back pocket. She hovers for a moment, frozen in place, but then she takes a deep breath, steels herself, and opens the door to their room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (You'd think I'd be nice and not leave it on a slight cliffhanger after last time. You would be wrong).


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could give you a whole list of reasons why I haven't updated in almost two months but I'm sure you'd rather just jump into the chapter. All I will say is that this fic will be finished and I'm sorry it's been so long without an update. There's one more chapter to go but that'll be more of an epilogue. We're almost there.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who's been reading, liking and commenting over the past couple of months; I'm still overwhelmed at how much people have enjoyed reading this. Fair warning (and spoiler alert), things get a little more mature here but not quite enough for me to feel a need to change the rating.
> 
> I hope this was worth the wait!

Amy feels like she’s standing on the edge of a momentous precipice as the door swings open silently but somehow she forces her legs to move forward into the room that holds the terrifying possibility that is her future. It would be easy, so easy, to turn around and run before she’s forced to face the suffocating tension that has been surrounding her and Jake for far longer than she can remember yet her body keeps walking, pushing her forward even if she doesn’t think she’s ready. One moment she’s stood in the corridor with the key card in her hand and the next she’s standing in the middle of the bedroom, shivering as a light breeze blows in from the ocean.

Jake’s clothes are thrown carelessly on the bed and she can hear him humming loudly in the bathroom. The urge to flee itches at the back of her neck and the wicked voice whispers in her head that she’s going to embarrass herself by making an emotional declaration on the heels of his possible romantic reunion with Sophia. She doesn’t listen though, instead choosing to remember Edgar’s words. She’s done assuming she knows what Jake is thinking and feeling. She assumed he wasn’t serious when he told her he had feelings for her. She assumed he wouldn’t be a viable option for a partner, not compared to safe, secure Teddy. Then she assumed he had moved on with Sophia and was over her forever. At every turn, Amy has assumed things about Jake rather than simply asking him, and at every turn she’s found herself alone and unhappy.

It’s time to face her fears and finally _talk_ to him.

She drops down on the bed and starts folding Jake’s clothes just as much out of desperation to keep her fingers and brain busy as much as out of a need for organisation. The bathroom door opens when she’s halfway through folding his t-shirt and it drops to the floor when she registers that he’s hovering in the doorway watching her.

Her throat dries leaving it impossible to swallow as she takes in the sight of him in front of her. He’s shirtless and hasn’t towel dried properly from the shower meaning drops of water slide down his pale skin, weaving with the dark dusting of hair that decorates his chest. It’s impossible for her eyes not follow the trail of dark hair that disappears below the waistband of his blue shorts that are hanging indelicately low on his hips. That combined with the way his hair is curling from the humidity of the shower and the deliciousness of his cleanly shaven jawline makes a wave of wanting wash over her, leaving her breathless.

Amy wants Jake in a way that she’s never craved any man before. She’s lost count of the nights she’s dreamt of him in ways that cross the line from partner to something more and woken in the morning wanting to touch him. Sex has always been something she’s enjoyed but not beyond the satisfaction she knows you’re supposed to feel. With Teddy, sex was routine and nice, never something she needed or craved. Yet her whole body aches for Jake when they’ve done nothing more than kiss. She _wants_ him, and she crosses her legs in a desperate attempt to ease the ache she can feel growing between her thighs because she’s not here to scratch an itch or find answers to all the questions she has about the way he is in bed. This is about far more than simple, overwhelming lust, so she ignores the flush creeping up her skin and forces herself to focus on the emotional mess the pair of them have found themselves caught up in.

“I...”

To her frustration, the words won’t come and she watches as he pulls on a t-shirt.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

Breathing and speaking feel much easier now Jake is dressed.

“Is everything alright? You kind of vanished last night.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that.” She hadn’t thought what it must have been like for him when she disappeared without a word. One kiss and she was gone like a shitty Cinderella.

“What happened?”

Jake looks so earnest that it kills her. Even now, his biggest concern is her and she wishes she was better at this, that she was more like Rosa and Gina, just able to say what she’s thinking and feeling without being scared of what might happen or of making a fool of herself.

_‘Us Santiagos aren’t cowards.’_ Edgar’s words echo in her head and she takes a shaky breath to steel herself.

She’s done being a coward.

“I saw the text from Sophia.”

There it is. The ugly truth of it all which has left her miserable and uncertain since the moment she first read the message last night.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

He scratches at the back of his neck and shifts uncomfortably for a moment before dropping down into the armchair across from her.

“I didn’t realise you’d read that.”

“It’s kind of why I didn’t feel like hanging around after that.” Her heart thumps loudly in her chest and she’s amazed he can’t hear it from across the room. “Are you back together?”

“What?”

“You and Sophia. It sounded like she wanted to get back together with you and I know that’s what you wanted.”

“When did I ever say that I wanted to start things up again with her?”

“Jake, I saw you two together and how crazy you were about her. And I saw how heartbroken you were when she called things off. Of course you want her back.”

He stiffens at her words and the warmth vanishes from his eyes. Standing up, he shakes his head and picks up his hoodie from the back of the chair, tugging it on without a word. He’s halfway through lacing up his sneakers when she realises he’s angry. It’s a rare sight, a pissed off Jake Peralta, but she’s seen it enough times to recognise the tell-tale signs from the tension in his back to the clenched jaw. It’s not often the anger is aimed at her though and it makes her uncomfortable.

“Jake...” she starts.

“Thanks for telling me what I want, Amy. I’m glad we’re both clear on what I think and feel.”

The coldness in his tone comes as a shock but he’s stomping towards the exit before she can properly process it, leaving her with no choice but to hurl herself between him and the hotel room door. She misjudges her balance slightly though causing her to clutch his arm to steady herself, and he jolts at the feeling of her holding onto him.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed anything. Edgar made me aware this morning that making assumptions is a problem of mine.”

“You know what they say about people who assume,” Jake says with a grin, and the familiar sight of his warm smile makes the tension in her body ease.

“I’m sorry,” she reiterates and he nods.

“For what it’s worth, no, Sophia and I aren’t back together.”

“Oh.”

“See the problems those pesky assumptions make for you.”

“I just thought when I saw her text that you would want to go back to her.”

“Amy,” he says, his gaze softening in a way that makes her knees weak. “I have no interest in getting back together with Sophia. I told her exactly that when I called her last night. Yes, we had a great relationship and yes, it sucked when we broke up, but she isn’t what I want anymore. She isn’t _who_ I want anymore.”

She swears her heart stops for just a moment. He’s looking at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before, and it suddenly feels like all the air has been sucked out of the room. There are things they need to talk about, things beyond and bigger than the Sophia text, because this is her and Jake and they could be something incredible, but the idea of that is huge and daunting and makes her want to run in the opposite direction towards something safe. Yet the only thing she wants in this moment is to kiss him again and to see if she can taste the strawberry toothpaste he always uses on his breath.

So she does.

Her hands fist at his shirt, pulling him towards her, and she sees the shock pass across his face for a second before his lips crash against hers, and then everything is Jake. His lips are soft but firm as he kisses her with an intensity that is almost overwhelming, and they stumble backwards until her back hits the door at the same moment that his tongue slides into her mouth and begins battling with hers for dominance. The kiss is hard and rough and she groans as one hand slides down and cups her ass. She gives as good as she gets though, rocking her hips against him and relishing the feel of his growing erection pressing against her. Then he’s lifting her up and away from the door, leaving her to wrap her legs around his waist and slide her fingers into his hair.

Scraping her nails along his scalp, she sighs at the deep groan that her touch draws from Jake’s mouth as she grinds her hips against his. She’s barely aware of them moving, too focused on the heady sensation of his kisses as he carries her across the room.

Eventually he stops kissing her and she swears her whole body aches at the loss of his lips on hers.

“Amy,” he says, and she can see the worry and uncertainty in his eyes. Of course Jake, sweet, wonderful Jake, wouldn’t take her practically dry humping him as a sign that she’s fully on board with this. “Are you sure about this?”

“I swear if you don’t start kissing me right this instant then the moment we get home, I’m telling Boyle you’ve eaten three McDonalds since we arrived here.”

“Fair enough,” he says and then he’s kissing her again and there’s no room for thoughts of Boyle or Sophia or text messages or anything that isn’t her and Jake and this moment.

They tumble back onto the bed and Amy doesn’t even attempt to silence the moan she lets out as Jake’s hand slides up underneath her t-shirt and palms her breast in a way that makes her hips buck against him, eliciting an equally loud groan from him at the friction it creates. The way he kisses her makes her whole body feel like it’s on fire and she slips her hands down to his hips, pulling him closer to her and humming happily as he rubs against her. He shifts and she gasps at the new sensation while he kisses her neck, sucking hard and making her hips buck again. When she grinds against him, his breath stutters so she does it again, grinning as a deep groan escapes him.

“I’m going to be late for the golf game,” Jake murmurs, his eyes dark with arousal, as his hips rock against hers, sending a delicious shiver down her spine and causing heat to pool in her belly.

Some small part of her brain remembers her father inviting Jake to join him for a game, but Jake’s thumb is circling her nipple and he’s kissing her neck and the thought disappears as quickly as it came.

“We’ll be quick.”

She hooks a leg around his waist, pulling him towards her, and she revels in the way the weight of his body sinks her down into the mattress as he tugs off her top and kisses his way down her chest. Her own fingers follow the dark trail that disappears under the waistband of his shorts until she’s stroking him through the thin material of his boxers and he’s gasping her name into her skin, warm and hard in her hand.

Jake doesn’t make it to the golf game.

* * *

 

When Amy wakes up later, the sun is starting to dip low on the horizon. She can’t remember the last time she spent the afternoon in bed, sleeping and doing other more pleasurable activities, and she relaxes back into the plush pillows, savouring the sheer comfort of the expensive bed and the weightless, sated feeling flowing through her body.

“Afternoon,” comes a voice to her right and she twists her head slightly to see Jake watching her, his eyes heavy but a smile gracing his face. She can’t stop her own smile forming and his widens as he moves closer to her, pressing a kiss to her bare shoulder.

“So that happened.”

Warmth spreads across her skin at the realisation that she’s naked in bed with Jake Peralta, her partner who believes smarties in a bowl of milk make for a sensible breakfast, but then his hands are caressing her skin while he pulls her towards him and it doesn’t feel all that absurd.

“Yes it did,” he grins, littering kisses along her neck, his legs intertwined with hers. “I thought I was going to have to hire skywriters soon to make you realise how I felt.”

His words and tone are light but she recognises the weight behind his words and she stiffens a little in his arms, enough to make him pull away and prop himself up so he can look her in the eye.

“Jake,” she starts but he interrupts.

“I don’t want you to think I came on this trip with you hoping anything would happen. You said you wanted us to be friends and that was fine with me, more than fine. But then we were here and it started to feel like all that pretending wasn’t just pretending, and I thought I might be imagining it but you kissed me and it was incredible.”

“It was incredible. And you weren’t imagining anything. When I asked you to come here with me, I thought I could keep the boundary between being friends and something more. Except I’ve wanted something more for a long time now. I was simply too scared to do anything about it.”

“You have?” he asks, looking so adorably incredulous that she’d laugh if this wasn’t a moment that’s been building since that night outside the precinct over a year ago.

“I shouldn’t have stayed with Teddy when you told me how you felt. He didn’t make me happy and I was with him for the wrong reasons. I spent a really long time trying to pretend I didn’t have feelings for you and being terrified of what would happen if I did tell you how I felt.”

“Amy, I would have been...”

“No,” she says, and she shifts a little to create some distance. “Just let me get this out.” He nods and she feels a rush of something she’s not ready to name at the way he understands her so easily. “Watching you be with Sophia was hard, harder than I expected, and knowing you’d moved on from me hurt so much, but I never let myself think about why. Then I was always too scared to take the risk and tell you how I felt in case you had moved on and I was left heartbroken.” She pauses and thinks about the past few days and how wonderful it’s been letting Jake in in a way she’s always been too scared to before. “And now I just wish I hadn’t wasted so much time ignoring my feelings.”

Jake is silent and every breath sends a wave of panic through Amy in case she’s misread this whole situation, but then a wide grin breaks out on his face and he’s kissing her so furiously that warmth rushes through her whole body.

“I don’t care how long it took us to figure this out,” he says after he presses a kiss to her forehead. “I just care that we managed it.”

There’s so much more she could say about how much he means to her and where they’re going to go from here but all she can do is shriek and laugh as Jake pulls her on top of him, sliding an arm around her waist, and, as she kisses him, she realises that none of that matters. They’ve got all the time in the world to talk about their feelings and the messy path they took to reach this moment. And, for the first time in her life, Amy doesn’t care about what’s next or about crafting a plan for the days to come. All she cares about is the amazing man lying beneath her and how wonderful it feels to finally be able to call him hers.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A moment of quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promised this would be finished and, though it took - a lot - longer than expected, this is the end. This was supposed to be a one-shot to help me get through the hiatus between seasons two and three and instead it spiraled. I never expected for it get as much love as it did and I have been continuously blown away by the response this story has gotten. Thank you so so much to everyone who's read this story, left kudos and comments, shared it with other people and loved it. It means the world to me. Thank you.

Amy had thought that bringing Jake along would make this whole experience more bearable as she faced the constant barrage of _‘when is it going to be_ your _turn to get married, Amy?”_ and sympathetic looks, but it turns out having him as an actual boyfriend rather than a faux imitation of one makes a tropical wedding in paradise more enjoyable than she ever could have expected.

It’s practically impossible to register Alexa’s backhanded compliments when Jake’s hand is linked tightly through hers throughout the entire rehearsal dinner – even when the meal is served and he faces the challenge of eating it one-handed. The sight of Alexa and Asher nauseatingly grinding against each other as they dance doesn’t even make her stomach churn as Jake whispers witty observations about the more interesting members of her family in her ear the whole time, and she doesn’t feel a single moment of upset when various couples wander out onto the dancefloor to slow dance together because Jake is pulling her out there along with them, his hands warm on her waist as they dance. She doesn’t even feel her usual blinding rage towards her obnoxious cousin when her wake-up call draws her from Jake’s warm arms and out onto the terrace for breakfast when the sun has barely risen on the big day.

“Alexa has you up this early too?” Amy asks as she slides into a seat opposite her father who’s quietly working through the Times crossword on the almost empty patio.

“No, I enjoy the quiet at this time of the day. She has you prepping you already, huh?”

“There is a very strict schedule she expects us all to stick to. This is about the only chance I have to eat until it’s all over,” she says before gracefully shoving a piece of bacon in her mouth.

 The pair of them sit in silence for a while, a fond recreation of Sunday mornings in the Santiago household when she used to wake up early for her paper round and keep her father company at the breakfast table before her rabble of brothers woke up. Her childhood is littered with memories of helping him solve the Times crosswords, and it’s still all too common for him to call her for help on a particularly tricky clue at some point during the weekend. She’d tried in vain for months to get him to convert to the iPad version but he had been stubborn in his love for the permanence of the paper and pen. Now, as she watches him chew on the end of his blue biro and ponder the solution to four down, she feels a strong sense of comfort at the familiar sight.

Her phone buzzes on the table with a text from Jake, complete with poor punctuation, mourning her absence beside him in bed, and she can’t stop a smile from forming as another arrives filled with nothing but sad face emojis.

“He really makes you happy, doesn’t he?”

The question startles her for a moment and she looks up to see her father smiling at her softly.

“Huh?”

“I’m assuming that the reason for your smile is that you have a message from Jake.” She nods, feeling like a teenager all over again. “Do you know you practically glow when you’re with him, mija? It’s obvious how happy he makes you.”

“He’s pretty wonderful, papi.”

“Amy, there you are,” a particularly high-pitched voice shrieks, and Amy turns to see Rebecca, one of the bridesmaids, storming across the patio with large rollers in her hair and an alarmed expression on her face. “Alexa has been looking everywhere for you. The hair prep started five minutes ago. She is freaking out.”

“You better go, sweetheart. That sounds extremely important.” The smirk on her father’s face is obvious and she glares at him as she grabs her muffin while Rebecca clicks her fingers at her in irritation. “After all, it might be your turn next,” he winks.

* * *

_Three years later_

“I thought I’d find you up here.”

Jake turns at her voice and smiles in a way that’s instantly reassuring and calming. It’s the same smile he gives her when she’s nervous before a major presentation at work or when she’s getting too caught up in her own crazy neuroses. Somehow, no matter how ridiculous or terrifying the situation, nothing ever seems as overwhelming when he’s smiling at her like that.

“Breaking the rules, Ames? There was a ‘no roof access’ sign on that door.

“I figured you’d already broken it already. If anyone comes up here, I’ll just say that I came up here to reprimand you,” she tells him, dropping down next to him on the ground and staring out over the city.

“Betraying me the night before our wedding; I didn’t expect that one.”

He smiles a little softer this time and she slides her hand into his, smiling herself when he gives her hand a reassuring squeeze.

“How are you doing?” she asks.

“You know that both our families are crazy? Your mum and my mum got into a squabble over whether Jimmy Carter or Joe Biden was more attractive when they were younger. And Alexa keeps comparing everything to her wedding. I may have told the waiter to start spitting in her drink.”

“Jake!”

“Amy, she’s the worst. She called Charles’ food choices bourgeois. I swear he was about to cry.”

“I told you we should have just got married at city hall with just two random witnesses.” She rests her head against his shoulder as he wraps an arm around her. “Tomorrow’s going to go alright, isn’t it?”

“Don’t kill me for this, because I know how many binders you and everyone else has created planning this wedding, but I don’t care if tomorrow is a complete disaster as long as I end it married to you.”

There have been far too moments over the past three years where Amy has found herself wondering how she ended up with such a brilliant guy, and, as she looks at her fiancé, she can’t help but beam brightly and kiss him.

“You’re amazing. I know our families are crazy and this whole wedding has got a little out of hand, but I want you to know how much I love you; none of that other stuff matters. How did I get so lucky?”

“I think I’m the one who needs to be asking that question. I get to marry you tomorrow. That’s freaking awesome.”

“Can you believe we’re getting married? If someone had told me when we first met that we’d be ending up here, I would have assumed they were insane.”

“Thanks, Ames.”

“I just mean that we weren’t _this_ for a long time, and then our timing was off and I had sort of figured that it would never happen. Alexa may be a pain but if it wasn’t for her wedding, we might not even be sat here right now.”

“I like to think we could have got here eventually without that.”

“Maybe, but I’m glad we didn’t have to wait any longer than we did.” She pauses and knocks her knee against his, making him look at her. “I don’t think I ever said it back then but thank you for being my fake boyfriend. You were pretty good at it.”

“You made a pretty great fake girlfriend as well.”

 “I don’t think we’ve done too bad a job at the real boyfriend/girlfriend thing either.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking we’re going to nail this husband and wife thing.”

Silence hovers over them but it’s comfortable and soothing so Amy lets it linger, simply relishing in the feel of Jake’s hand in hers and her shoulder resting against his. She can still remember the nerves and panic she’d felt at the start of their hare-brained scheme three years ago, so certain that Jake would never reciprocate her feelings. Now there’s a wedding dress hanging on the back of her hotel room door, a hotel filled with their friends and family ready to celebrate their love, and an engagement ring on her finger that reminds her every day that she’s lucky enough to be marrying the most amazing man. It would have seemed impossible to her back then that this would be her life, and even now she still feels like she needs to pinch herself and make sure that this is all real.

“I can’t wait to marry you tomorrow.”

“Neither can I. I’m so glad I get to spend the rest of my life with you.”

When she was in her twenties, Amy had found the uncertainty of her future to be terrifying. She liked stable, secure men and clearly organised five-year plans. Anything else was unclear and to be avoided. But with Jake by her side, the future doesn’t seem so scary anymore. She doesn’t know what it’s going to be like but the beauty of life with Jake is that he makes her feel like their life can be whatever they want it to be.

“Come on, sleeping beauty,” she says when she spots him stifling a yawn. “It’s time for bed. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

He’s sleepier than she realised and he allows her to lead him back to their hotel rooms with minimal complaining until they reach his room and she doesn’t follow him in.

“It’s one night, Jake,” she tells him when he grumbles about silly wedding traditions and not being able to sleep properly without her. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll be the one wearing white.”

He pouts ever so slightly, looking more adorable than he has any right to, before pressing a kiss to her forehead and smiling sleepily at her.

Eventually she manages to coax him into his room and she trudges back to her own, curling up under the covers in a bed that feels far too large without Jake lying next to her complaining about her cold feet. Kylie and her mom had been so adamant about the importance of spending the night before the wedding apart but now it seems silly and antiquated because she can’t sleep without Jake and she already knows she’s going to spend the whole night tossing and turning.

Except then the beep of her hotel door opening fills the room and she sits up in bed, heart racing, only to see Jake appear in the doorway.

“What are you doing here? How did you get it in?”

“Turns out reception is surprisingly lax about room security.” He climbs into bed next to her and she can’t even bring herself to reprimand him for breaking with tradition because his body is so warm against hers and she can already feel her eyelids dropping at the comfort that his presence in her bed brings her. “I couldn’t sleep without you and I realised I didn’t want to just because people said we had to. You’re not mad, are you?”

“No, Jake, I’m not mad. I love you.”

“I love you too, Amy, so very much.”

She thinks he might say something else but sleep is drawing in her in and all she’s really aware of is Jake’s arms around hers and the sound of his heart beating as she rests her head on his chest. And, as she drifts off to sleep, head filled with thoughts about tomorrow’s wedding and the start of their married life, all she can feel is grateful that one over the top wedding could have led her to so much happiness.

Thank god for obnoxious cousins and their extravagant weddings.


End file.
